Loyola & Jesuitism in Its Rudiments

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I

^^SRA^if^^"

LO YOL A

^'0 é>2.

AMD

JESUITISM IN ITS RUDIMENTS.

-

BT

ISAAC TAYLOR,

▲UTHOE or THB ^^HATVmAL BMTOKT OF BrnrHUflAfM."

, NEW YORK:

ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS,
No. 285 BROADWAY.

1849.

£v

PREFACE.

It seems dae to the reader, aa well as to myself, to explam—
briefiy at least — ^the intention which led to the production of the
▼olume now put into his hånds. Regarded by itself, this outline
of the Life and Institute of Loyola woald probably give rise to an
entire misapprehension of my purpose.

It might be supposed that I had wished, at a moment of political

cclesiastical commotion, to step forward and signalize my

ant zeal, in an assault upon the ever to be dreaded " Society

^^is." This is not the faet. I have little or no ftdth in the
bejd^Kial tendency of assaults upon particular systems, supposed
to be of mischievous quality. Nor, even if I might ho)>e to render
some service to Protestantism by attempting a direet attack upon
its opponents, do I think that Jesuitism, in paiticular, could, at this
time, substantiate its claim to be singled out as the most to be feared
among the antagonists of truth. Although far from entertaining
the belief that Jesuitism is about presentiy to disappear, I could not
consent to give it a foremost place in the list of things especially
formidable.

On the contrary, it is because Jesuitism is now, as I think, falling
into its place among schemes that may be analyzed without alarm,
and that may be treated, in all calmness, according to its merits,
that I have selected it from among those institutes which are still
extant, and Hkely to subsist a while, and to exert some dying in-
fluence, although they be hastening to their end. The same might
be said, at this time, of all those products of the middle ages, or of
the season of convulsion which brought the mediæval era to a close ;
— namely, that, as things about to '•" vanish away," they offer them-
selves as fit objects of tranquil and instructive contemplation.

So far as it may be possible, in a comprehensive manner, to com-
pare ourown times with past ages, a difference presents itself which
IS highly characteristic, and fuU of meaning in relation to the future.
It is this that — whereas each revolution of opinion, and each signal
event, hitherto marking the intellectual and religions history of Eu-
rope, has borne the impress of individual minds, or perhaps oi some
one mind, so that a great name stands as the symbol of theories,
systems, communions — now, the influence of individual men seems
to have ceased almost to make itself felt. in any such manner. The
course of events, and the progress of opinion, is the tide wave of a
mighty ocean, in relation to which the jery mention of individual
agency would sound like a mockery. In times past great minds led

IV PREPACE.

a hoøt; and gave their names to the regions that had been opened,
or conquered, under their guidance. But now it seems task enough
if we can bring oureelves to contemplate, with serenity, and to com-
prehend, the giddy tossings — the reeling to and fro— of the social
system.

In presence of these vast and ominous convulsions — what is the
pulpit — or the press even — or what the consultations of good men
in committeel They are little more than what the very same
means of influence would be, if opposed to the storm-borne swell
of the Atlantic ! Ominous convulsions, we may call them, and yet
are they not auspicious 1 for, at a time when man is thus compelled
to confess his impotence, may not the intervention of Omnipotence
be so much the more confidently looked for?

But the cessation — or the apparent cessation — of human agency,
as related to the movements and progress of the moral system, seems
to invite attention to the times wnen its power was at the height ;
and when the individual peculiarities and the persona! history of
illustrious men ffave a well-defined direction to the mind of n
and lefl a strongiy marked image upon their forms of belief, an
their permanent institutions. As Christian men we are a
living in the light (or under the shadow) of great names.
faith, and our worship, and our usages, are all emblazoned, as with
the armorial bearings of our religious ancestors.

The present religious existence of the European commonwealth
— if inaeed the continental nations may be said to retain any of the
elements of a religious existence — various as it is in its features,
might be described under the designation of some twelve or twentv
illustrious leaders of past times. Nothing on any side ezists which
might not fairly be brought under review in connection with a
name, or which would not involuntariiy suggest itself to every well-
informed mind — on the mere mention of such a name.

I will confess, then, to have entertained the idea of bringing the
several existing religious systems under separate review — each con-
sidered as the product ofthe mind which, principaliy, gave it its
form and character. The execution of a task such as this, in a
manner fiilly proportioned to its magnitude and importance, would
demand qualincations to which I make no pretension. The quali-
fication which I do profess, and apart from which such a task as-
suredly should not be attempted, is — on tlie one hånd, a profound
belief ofthe truth of that Gospel which "is not of man" — and, on
the other, a thorough freedom of mind, in relation to all those forms
of Christianity which bespeak a lower origin. I. T.

Stanftn-d Riv^s, March26f 1849.

CONTENTS.

i'>>i/N/N/N/>^

Pbepacb Pageiii.

PART I.

PXBSONAL HISTORT.

Cbspter Fifs

I. Loyola, and the relatiTe position of his sjstein 7

II. Loyola's early yean, and conTenion ... 98

III. Loyola's attempt td conyert the Mahometan world,

and the failure of the enterpiise .... 64

IV. Loyola, in preparation for the work to which he de-

▼otes himaelf, goea to school at Barcelona, and elte-

where 80

y. Loyola's coUeagues, and the birth of the Society 103

VI. Loyola's election to the generalship of the Society 133

VII. Loyola's govemment of the Socie^ . . . 156

VIII. Loyola's mind 199

PART n.

JBSUITISM IN ITS RUDIMENTS.

CSiapter

L The"ExercitiaSpiritualia" 315

II. The " LeUer on Obedience" 373

III. The " Constitutions" 301

IV. The purport of the Jesuit Institute .... 346
V. Pascal, and the "Provincial Letters" . . .376

Notes • . . . . 393

LOYOLA.

PART I.

PERSONAL HISTORY.

CHAPTER I.

LOTOLA, AND THE RELATXYIB POSITIOir OF HIB 8TSTBM.

The lapse of even so long a period as three cen-
turies has not in every instance been enough to
place a great name beyond the reacb of political or
religious prejudices ; nor indeed can any such ob-
livion of undue aversions, or relinquishment of par-
tialities equally undue, be well looked for in the
case of those eminent men whose names stand con-
nected with institutions, or with modes of belief,
which are still extant. It is the fate of such men
to wait long for bare justice on earth ; — they live
on, from age to age, in the systems they have
originated, and are doomed to stand anew at
the bar of each succeeding generation, until their
infiuence and their authority shall have become
extinct.

Nevertheless, although influences of this sort
must live while parties live, yet are they continu-
ally losing their hold of the educated classes ; nor

8 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

is it difficult now to find those who have attained
equanimity enough to enable them freely to award
his due to a distinguished man of past times, irre-
spectively of any opinion that may be entertained
as to the quality of the system, the institution, or
the doctrines, to which he may have given perpetu-
ity. Yet even such persons, exempt as they may
be from vulgar prejudices, may very probably have
come under an influence of a more subtile kind,
against which the more caution is needed, because
it neither stirs the passions, nor excites the imagi-
nation ; and on the contrary, soothes and flatters a
philosophic temper. The modern tendency to the-
orize, and to pursue gratuitous generalizations on
the field of history, may beguile us far from the'
path of simple truth, in forming our opinion of dis-
tinguished men, as does even the most acrid bigotry.
Ol the most overweening idolatry. Doubtless the
moral universe, not less than the material, obeys
the impulse of general laws ; but who shall profess
himself to be master of them, even in their rudi-
ments, much less in that infinitely varied interac-
tion of these laws which makes up the course of
human affairs? Of these occult principles we
catch a glimpse, once and again, and what is
cailed the Philosophy of History availing itself of
such sudden flashes, constructs, by their aid, a
fragmentary science — not utterly vague indeed,
nor quite useless ; but not to be had recourse to, or
to be relied upon, without the utmost caution.

We here occupy ground where no experiment
can ever be repeated ; and where no two events, or
courses of action, although apparently identical or

mS SYSTEM. 9

analogous, can be brought into comparison with
any confidence that the veiy same causes, and no
others, have been in operation, in bolh cases. The
Philosophy of Histoiy may indeed be applied with
some certainty to great breadths, and to extensive
surfaces ; but scarcely at all, or not without ex-
treme risk, can it be brought to bear upon single
events, or individual characters.

Abroad, and in Germany, especially, the practice
of theorizing upon events and persons has become
a fashion — a fashion fruitfiil of absurdities, and
while it perverts the simplicity of history, by a show
of ingenuity and novelty, it has rendered plain
realities distasteful ; and, in some momentous in-
stances, has broken up the very ground of historie
certainty.

If any such pseudo-scientific method were adopted
and applied to the instances of Martin Luther and
of Ignatius Loyola, it might be easy to shed upon
our tbeme a glare of philosophic splendor. Thus
this pair of worthies might be held up to view as
binary stars, revolving round a common centre, and
exhibiting the counteractive forces, moral and re-
ligions, of the sixteenth century ! Each, it might
be said, and each, as related to the other, was the
necessary consequence of the conflicting ferments
of that stirring age. Each of these great men
came forth, we might be told, when he came, and
each was what he was, and each did what he did,
in obedience to certain occult forces w^hich, from
the depth of ages, had been working themselves up
to the surface of European civilization ! The one
was " an Idea" proper to Germany ; the other " an

1*

10 I6NATIUS LOYOLA.

Idea" proper to Spain ; and the two were simulta-
neously evolved by a silent energy of the moral sys-
tem, then struggling into light, and asking to be
defined, and to be uttered aloud, and to be defended,
and to be consigned to future ages ! Luther, ae-
cording to some such theory, was the spokesman
of the Teutoaicidea of Ghristianity ; Loyola, of the
Spanish ; and thus we should have before us the
philosophy of the religious movements of the six-
teenth century ; that is to say, of the Reformation
throughout the northern, and of the Gatholic reac-
tion throughout the southem nations of Europe !

But if, in dealing with secular history, the theo-
rizing tendency ought to be very cautiously in-
dulged, how much more occasion is there for hesi-
tation when the persons and events of religious
history are to be disposed of ! For, on this ground,
the causes we have to do with are more occult, and
are less easily defined, and they are more easily
misunderstood. There is, indeed, a philosophy of
religious history; but who, among mortals, shall
say that he has fathomed its depths ? From the
dim recesses of a human bosom — and this bosom
put in movement by the falling of a leaf, or by in-
fluences unseen and inscrutable — may spring the
germs of a new era for millions of the human fam-
ily ! Could then such an order of events have
been predicted? or, after it has taken place, are
we competent to assign these events to their
causes ?

Too often have portions of history, or single bi-
ographies, been composed in the spirit, or after the
&«hion of an epic. Unity of intention has been

ms SYSTEM. 11

looked for where it was not to be found ; and every
trivial incident has been shown to have had its
meaning in conformity with the theory wbich
governs tbe whole. Such histories or biographies
might gain much praise if given to the worid as
pieces of art.

A special exception, however, must be taken
against this philosophic method, if it were attempted
to apply it to the case of Ignatius Loyola ; — and
perhaps another instance equally remarkable in
this respect does not present itseif on the page of
history. We have to do, in this case, with <me
Ignatius Loyola ; but with two types of mind —
with tteo historie personages ; and, therefore, any
theory which may seem applicable to the one, must
be laid aside, and give place to a wholly different
hypothesis, when we direct our attention to the
other. The Loyola of the biographers, and the
St. Ignatius of the Society, stand contrasted in a
maoner that seems to set at defiance any attempt
at generalization.

The Loyola of the biographers is indeed a very
intelligible person, differing in no very marked man-
ner from scores of saints of whom the Church of
Rome is used to make her boast. Seen in this light,
he may well enough be regarded as the chiid and
creature of his times, and of his country, and of his
church : — all, so far — appears to be congruous, and
to be of ordinary quality, and therefore it is expli-
cable upon known and obvious principles. But a
moment comes when the weU-defined contour and
vivid colors of this cc^izable figure begin to dis«
solve, and to give place to a mysterious outline, or

12 lONATIUS LOYOLA.

rather monocrome, and which we are told to look
upon as the image of the Founder of the Society
of Jesus !

As to Luther, his personal character is all of a
piece, whether we take up his private history, or his
public conduct, as leader of the great movement of
his times. The regenerator of Northern Europe is
oné man, whether he be seen confronting princes
and diets, or recreating his spirit at home. It is
otherwise with Loyola, who, although not to be ac-
cused of acting a part, either as a '^ saint" or as a
chief, nevertheless, when he shifts himself from the
one character to the other, seems almost to have
laid aside his identity. What are the facts sum-
marily stated 1 — A Spanish gentleman, of bold bear-
ing, and who courts every chivalrous distinction,
and breathes at once a nice honor, and a gallantry
less nice, is grievously wounded and thrown upon
his bed, where he endures weeks of anguish, and
months of languor. Spoiled for war and pleasure by
the hurt he has received, and fired, in a moment, by
a new ambition, he breaks from his home, and sets
forward as a Christian fakir, to amaze the world by
feats of wild humility. He undergoes mental par-
oxysms, he sees visions, and exists thenceforward
in a condition of intense emotion, resembling, in
turns, the ecstacies of the upper, and the agonies
of the nether world. He dedicates himself, body
and soul, to the service of the blessed Virgin — the
queen of angels : — he sets out on a preaching pil-
grimage to convert the Mahometan world, and he
contemns all prudence and common sense in apply-
ing himself to an enterprise so immensely dispropor-

mS SYSTEM. 13

tioned to his abilities. In the course of a year or

two he has merited canonization — ^if frenzied pietism
can ever merit it.

But now this same devotee — this unmanageable
enthusiast as he seems, and wbose cheeks are fur-
rowed with perpetual slreams of penitence and rap-
ture — suddeniy conceives and quickly digests (at a
yery early period afler his conversion) and puts for-
ward, and brings into operation, a scheme of life
and a polity of which nolhing more need be said
than that it has proved itself to be the most firmly
compacted, and the most efficient, of any which the
world has seen. A scheme so bold, as to the means
of which it avails itself, and so refined in its modes
of dealing with human nature, and so elaborate in
its frame-work, and so far-reaching in its views and
purposes, could not have sprung from any but a
mind of extraordinary compass ; — a mind self-pos-
sessed and tranquil, delicate in its perceptions, sure
in its intuitions, and capable of a wide comprehen-
sion of various objects. The framer of this spiritual
polity, if he was not moved by, must have mastered,
a boundless ambition, and must have known how
to beseem himself as a lamb, whilé planning nothing
less than the subjugation of the world. The per-
sonal history of Don Inigo Lopez de Becalde is in
itself perfectly intelligible, and it has many counter-
parts : and so, although it has scarcely a counter-
part, is the history of the Founder of Jesuitism, if
cansidered by itself ; but how shall we weld the
two together, as the history of one person — the
Ignatius Loyola ?

In order to remove, or in some degree to lessen.

14 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

the difficulty that here presents itseif, two supposi-
tions have been advanced ; — the one is this : — ^That
Loyola's contemporary biographers have materially
falsified the portrait of their master, attributing to
him those virtiies and that phase of piety which
they thought becoming to him when he was to be
held forth as the founder of a religions order ; at
the same time throwing into the shade those true
and prominent features of his intellectual character,
which, if they had been brought into notice, might
have bred suspicion as to his heavenly-mindedness,
and the siraplicity of his intentions. The other of
these explanatory suppositions is this :— That Lo-
yola, being tru ly represented by his biographers, and
having been indeed an ecstatic devotee, was, in faet,
thrust forward in front of the Jesuit Institute, by its
real authors, as a means of covering their actual
intentions with a disguise of empassioned and se-
raphic piety.

Either of these suppositions might seem probable ;
but neither of them will bear a strict examination ;
for, in the first place, a comparison of the two or
three contemporaneous raemoirs of Loyola's person-
al history, while they esihibit indications of their
having been derived from independent sources,
present toomany marks of genuineness and of veri-
similitude to allow of their being rejected as fabri-
cations. The exaggerations that attach to them
may easily be set off ; and as to that intermixture
of the supernatural which they contain, those who
are familiar with the legends of the " canonized,"
will have learned how to disengage a true story
from this sort of decoration. The "Life of St.

HIS SYSTEM. 15

Ignatius" we must thcn reccive as substanlially
true, although it may be circumstantially spurious.
As to the second supposition, even if it might be
partially admitted as probable, it cannot so be enter-
tained as would serve to remove the difficulty in
question. It is certain that two veins of thought
are discemible in the original documents of the
Jesuit Institute, the one exhibiting far more of astute
ingenuity than does the other ; and hence it may
be inferred, that, while the simpler elements are at-
tributable to the real Loyola, the authorship of the
less simple should be assigned to his coUeagues. It
is in faet known that one or two of those who con-
stituted the " Society," in its infant period, were men
superior to himself in acquirements, and of a keener
intellectual type. Easily, therefore, may it be sup-
posed that these more skilful hånds took part in
laying the foundatioins, and in rearing the super-
structure of the Jesuit polity. But the supposition
that Loyola was the mere screen of the machina-
tions of his colleagues, and that he was innocent of
all but a cognizance of what they were doing, can-
not be admitted, inasmuch as those portions of the
canonical writings* of the Society which, on the
best grounds, are attributed to his own hånd, ex-
hibit so much refinement, and so much skill, and so
much of mathematical steadiuess in pursuing a de-
sired conclusion, and so thorough an intuition of

* By the phrase, once and again employed in reference to the
Jesuit documents — "canonical writings," what is intended is —
those writings which, from the first, have been appealed to by Jes-
uits as embodying the principles and the laws of the Society, and
which are still so appealed to.

16 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

human nature, that they might be held to vouch
for his competency to have been the author of the
whole.

The faet then, little relieved of difficulty, presents
itself— that the ever-weeping, the ecstatic, the vis-
ion-seeing " St. Ignatius" was indeed the originator
of the Society of Jesus, and therefore could have
been no enthusiast, no dreamer, no fanatic ; but one
who might have been matched with Macchiavelli
in subtile command of the springs of huinan action
— with Richelieu in the practice and art of govern-
ing mankind — with Hobbes in daring paradoxical
consistency — ^with $Iahomet in that fascination
which links together stronger minds for the achieve-
ment of an arduous enterprise — with Hildebrand in
boundless and well-digested purpose ; and, in a
word, with any among the few whose single ener-
gies have tumed the current of human affairs into
a new channel.

Loyola's elementary idea — that of an absolute
domination over the spirits of men, and of a centra-
lization of all powers on earth, in the bosom of one
master of souls, was not of his invention; for it
suggests itself always to a certain class of minds,
and is as old as human nature, and has, under
various phases, been coming to the surface, and
striving to give itself a real and visible existence,
from age to age. But no former endeavor of this
kind had been so consistently imagined, or has been
80 successfully achieved. It is Loyola who has
shown the world what might be meant by the phrase
"Spiritual Polity:" it is he who has known how to
smelt soul-ore into one mass — ^a mass uniformly

ms SYSTEM. 17

crystallized, and shining on its surface, and mathe-
matical in its figure, and thoroughly malleable
and ductile, and a good conductor of sounds: it
is he who has brought to perfection the process —
often attempted, of forging hundreds of individual
wills into so true a continuity of substance that
the volitions of a single mind should pass, like
galvanic currents, through the whole, and become
intelligible and effective at the remotest distances.

It is easy to fall into the error of supposing that
Jesuitism, which at the first so signally came in to
the aid of the Romish Church in its time of need,
and which has made so many professions of devot-
edness to its service, is itself a mere appendage of
that Church ; or that it is a sort of emphatic Ro-
manism ; or that it stands on level ground along
with the other religions orders, and that it is related
to the Papacy nearly as they are. Such an idea
of the Society as this is not merely contradicted by
every page of its history, but is incompatible with
its spirit and its rudiments. Jesuitism may outlast
Romanism ; or it may be whoUy severed from it,
and yet may live and grow. Often as the Society
has been seen prostrate at the foot of the Sovereigu
Pontiff, venting itself in vehement professions of
loyalty, it has, in faet, always hung loose upon ec-
clesiastical Catholicism, and has shown itself to be
organically independent, living by its own sap, drawn
from the soil by its own root and fibres. Jesuitism
has its own purpose? to secure, and its own law of
self-preservation ; and should the day come when
it could not save both itself and the Church, or
could save itself only by conspiring against her, its

18 IGNATTOS LOTOLA.

past history would warrant the belief that the Pa-
pacy might, at such a conjuncture, fall — set upon
by its professed friends, and with Cæsar's last words
on its lips, while it looks to '^ the Society."

Not only, however, did Loyola take care to give
his Institute an organization that should render it
independent of that of the Church, so that it might
stand firm on its own basis ; but, with a sagacity
which must be admired, and a boldness of which
there is perhaps no parallel example, and with a
far-reaching perception of the occult relations of
things, equally rare, he set his new polity as clear
as possible of any enlanglement with the emascu-
late pietism of the regular and ascetic orders. The
Society of Jesus was made to stand comparatively
exempt from the trammels and disparagements that
are connected with excessive austerities, with de-
basing superstitions, and with liturgicai burdens.
It stood clear of the seclusive anchoretic temper
and practice ; it made no show of celestial simpli-
city ; and, in a word, it threw aside, or would not
encumber itself with, any professions or practices
which might clog the movements of a machine
constructed for grasping, and crushing, and convert-
ing to its own use, the most substantial things of
earth.

Loyola seems himself, at least as early as the sec-
ond stage of his religions course, to have felt the
unprofitableness and vanity (if he did not clearly
discern-the utter absurdity) of ascetic extravagances.
He would not, indeed, scandalize the Catholic
Church by denouncing them, or by laying them
akogether aside in his own practice ; but there are

mS SYSTEM. 19

ipdicatioDs of his secret opinion thai the self-tor-
menting '^ philosophy/' though it afforded a fit
amusement for the crazed dwellers in cells and
caves, could be no proper occupation for men busied
with the weighty interests of the real world. As
an institutor, Loyola first bowed to his reverend
predecessor — the Anchoret; and thenVariiypassed
him by. For himself and his foUowers, he had high
matters to transact — ^he had a world to vanquish,
and to govern.

The pallid spiritualism of the ascetics, with its
vapid anilities, its meagre results, its ghost-like
movings to and fro to no purpose, its mopishness,
its shyness, its egotism and its self-seeking, were
not qualities that could engage more than^a com-
plaisant obeisance from a mind filled with vast con-
ceptions of a bold enterprise, and arduous labor.
Loyola paid his compliments to monkery, and to
its gew-gaws, in much the same manner as that in
which a monarch. full of state affairs, gives a half
hour of heartless courtesy and. ceremony to a di-
vorced consort.

Luther, in freeing himself from the ascetic spirit-
ualism, and in loudly denouncing it as an utter
folly and a pernicious error, did so from an impulse
of evangeUc heatth. To one so robust in soul,
what was this attenuated sanctity betler th'an a
tissue of cobwebs ? Loyola, from no such impulses,
yet distasting the same thing, and with whom the
relinquishment of it was not a matter of conscience
or conviction, but of policy, could, at the dictate oif
the same policy, continue to put it on as a garb,
and to take it up as a cloak, and to speak well of

20 lONATmS LOYOLA.

it, in measured terms, to his followers. Highly
characteristic is the style in which he does this.
He enjoins them, on all occasions — Laudare pluri-
mum religionum status ; — ^but the very injunction
betrays the consciousness tbat he and they occupied
independent positions, and that they were them-
selves exterior to the system they were thus to
commend. '^ Always speak in laudatory terms of
this or that usage or practice." So speaks an
authoritythat, in a perfunctory manner, is doing an
expected homage to another authority. So speaks
one who is instructing his agents how to behave
themselves in a foreign land. This — laudare plu-
rimum, is a concession, made in relation to a mat-
ter that is more highly thought of by the party to
whom it is rendered, than it is by him who renders
it ; and which is made for the sake of an ulterior
purpose.

Loyola, as the author of Jesuitism, was the me-
chanician, not the enthusiast: he was not the
fanatic, who is seen driving the herd of men before
him with a fiery scourge ; bnt the master and leader
of spirits, who calmly marshals and drills the minds
he bas enrolled. As he was not the promulgator
of any new dogma, he did not become fevered by
controversial heats. It was his function to give a
polity to the world : he could never have given it a
creed. His biographers assure us that he was ac-
customed frequently to cast his eyes heaven-ward ;
yet he was neither the mystic nor the contempla-
tist : — ^his Institute is all earthward-bént. Spiritual-
ism would have been to him idleness ; he could
occupy himself with nothing that had no product.

mS SYSTEM. 21

The depths which he fieithomed were not those
abysses of the moral world whereinto sombre and
solitaiy meditation plunges } but those near-at-hand
deeps of human nature which a few minds are
^fted to reach, as at a step, by intuition of the way.
As our Shakespeare knew human nature to paint it
truly in all its moods, so Loyola knew it to rule it
absolutely in all those moods.

There were special reasons, too, why Loyola
should take care not to connect his Institute too
intimately with the ascetic spiritualism. How far
h^ might be distinctly conscious of these reasons,
which are of a kind that were little regarded in that
age, if ever thought of, cannot be known : but it
may well be supposed that a mind so fraught as
was his with the intuitions of innate sagacity, might
discem, at least dimly, that a scheme of government
which was to difiuse itself over all countries, and to
embrace all races of men, must hold itself free from
those modes of piety which have sprung up and
flourished only in certain latitudes.

Spiritualism has appeared, spontaneously, only
withiu certain geographical limits: beyond those
limits it has been an importation — an exotic, kept
alive by artificial means. It is, or has al way s
seemed to be, dependent upon temperature: —
Fahrenheit must tell us where we may look for it.
As there may be marked on a globe a com-growing
zone, and a vine-growing zone, so likewise is there
a zone or helt of abstracted meditative pietism.
Where is it that we may be sure of finding the most
luscious firuits, hanging in ripe clusters by the way-
side, as common things ? It is where we shall also

22 lONATIUS LOTOLA.

be pointed, by the modem devotee, to the sbrinea of
a Benedict, a Basil, a Francis d' Assisi. Did Loyola
foresee thai a refined, abstemious, contemplative
pietism would with difficulty be sustaiaed in coun-
tries where animal comfort can never be relin-
quisbed with impunity ?

Besides, Jesuitism was intended to exist and to
establish itseif amid tbe realities of common life ; and
it was to do tbis in a manner wboily unlike anything
tbat bad been tboiigbt o£ or attempted by tbe earlier
monastic orders, whetber preacbing or mendicant.
Loyola well understood tbat tbis new intention in-
volved tbe necessity of a new principle, and bis skill
is sbown in sliding bis Institute from off tbe mo-
nastic platform, insensibly, wbile be lodged it firmly
upon broader and more solid ground. Tbe monas-
tic and ascetic spiritualism witbdraws its sincere
votaries from tbe corapany of otber men, not merely,
or cbiefly, because tbe " angelic virtue" feels itseif
in jeopardy wbile commingling witb tbe laxity, tbe
frivolity, and tbe corruption of tbe open world ; but
because it is itseif conscious of a want of substance
and reality ; and tbis consciousness becomes pain-
ful wbenever solid realities surround it on every
side. Spiritualism is factitious ; — it is not bypocrisy,
but it is spuriousness ; and notbing can be more
difficult, and especially so to tbose wbo are sincere,
tban to sustain an artificial state wbile encompassed
by wbat is natural and spontaneous. Tbe balloon
collapses, in spite of every effort to keep it inflated,
wben it is so pressed upon ; tbe spiritualist, sensi-
tive and apprebensive of moral annibilation, bastens
back to bis sodality, wbere be may again freely

HIS SYSTEM. 23

breathe in tbe company of those wbose subøtance is
as aérial as bis own.

Altbough therefore Loyola must be numbered
among the founders of religious orders, and altbough
tbe Society of Jesus is sucb, as to its foitns, its
yows, and its professions, we sbould go wideiy
astray if we were to attacb to tbat pbrase ideas
analogous to tbose tbat are called up wben wé bear
of Benedictines, Augustinians, Franciscans, Domin-
icans ; for tbese were religigus orders, in an entire
sense ; tbey were so in tbeir original purport, in
tbeir framework and usages, and in tbeir bearing
upon the open world. Tbe final purpose of tbese
societies was accompUsbed wben piety, according to
tbe ancient and mediæval notion of Christianity,
was promoted within tbeir own circles, and was ex-
tended by their means around them. But Jesuitism
would be wholly inexplicable if it were demanded
of us tbat we sbould regard it as mainly a religious
institute, or as a scheme intended for cherisbing
Christian virtues and graces.

It bas seemed necessary thus to premise, first^
that tbe personal history of Loyola does not offer to
ouf view (unless it be once and again indistinctly,
and as by a glimpse) the man we are in search of
— the tranquilly profound inventor of the Jesuit In-
stitute: next^ that tbis Institute, although it has
been spoken of as a sort of condensed Roman ism,
and although in faet it has done much to conserve
the Romish Church, and to extend its influence, has
an indeperident existence — is slenderly attached to
it — and, as it has already once and agaia been de-
tacbed &om tbe Church, or ejected by it, so probably

24 lONATIUS LOYOLA.

will it at length detach itself, and will stniggle for
a separate existence. Lastly^ the caution has been
given not to confound this Sociely with those an-
cient institutes which it resembles only in exterior
style, in professions, and in forms.

The personal history of Don Inigo Lopez de Re-
calde, of the house of Loyola, may be accepted at
the hånds of the two or three contemporary writers*
from whose pages it is derived, with some degree of
confidence as to its autl^enticity, if not with an ab-
solute assurance of its genuineness and simplicity.
This biography is in itself as credible as are most
of the narratives that make up the folios of the
Acta Sanctorum : nay, it is more credible — or rather
it is less mingled with what must be rejected — than
are very many of those prolix memoirs. If Saint
Ignatius had been signalized in no other way than
as having shed an edifying splendor upon the thirty-
first day of July, the story of his conversion, the
description of his manners, and the account given
of his labors as a popular teacher, might be perused
with as much benefit, and with as iittle hesitation,
as in the instance of the choicest worthies of the
calendar.

Although it be true that perplexity attends the
endeavor thoroughly to reconcile the Loyola of the
contemporary writers with our idea of the founder
and General of the order of Jesuits, this difficulty,
even though it were susceptible of no satisfactory
solution, would not warrant the rejection of memoirs
which, apart from any such dlflSculty, must un-
doubtedly be accepted as in the main authentic.

* See note at the end of the Yolume.

HIS SYSTEM. 35

' Loyola'^personal history naturally divides itseif
into tbree eras ; the first, and the most ordinary,
being that of his youthM career, and which, if not
whoUy destitute of characteristic traits, difiers but
little from what may easily be imagmed as proper
to Spain, and to the times and court of Ferdinand
and Isabella. The second period commences at the
moment when the tumult of earthly passions, luiled
by bodily sufferings, gave way to influences of an-
other kind, and which were permanently superseded
by deeper commotions of the soul : thence wc fol-
low him through a course of sharp, but not alto-
gether unusual spiritual conflicts, until the day, the
date of which is not ascertained, when these con-
vulsions of his individ ual nature were in their tum
quelled or displaced by the opening before him of a
vast idea — that of subjugating all souls of the hu-
man family, and which, when fuUy developed,
quickened within him extraordinary intellectual
faculties, and in the exercise of which a course pre-
sented itseif leading directly to a seat of power, such
as the most ambitions spirits might envy.

Inigo, high-born, slenderly educated, or, as it
seems, whoUy untaught in letters, yet accomplished
in all graceful and chivalrous arts, wanted no ad-
vantage that might secure to him, ia ample meas-
ure, the smiles and favors which are to be won and
enjoyed in courts, palaces, pavillons, and camps.
He is described by his contemporaries as of middle
stature, with an aspect full of grace and dignity ; a
complexion between the fair and swarthy ; an ample
and prominent forehead ; an eye sparkling, and full
of life ; the nose somewhat long and curved. He

2

26 IGNATIUS LOTOLA.

limped slightly, but not awkwardly, in cdnsequence
of the injury his leg had sustained in the hånds of
the surgeons. It is affirmed that he would never
grant permission to painters or sculptors to exercise
their art upon him ; and that the extant portraits
and medalHons were all derived from a cast taken
after death.

If authenticity could be attributed to a medaliion,
the execution of which might seem to vouch for its
genuineness, aud which accords well with the de-
scription given of their friend and master by his
foUowers, we may assume him to have been hand-
Bome, after the Spanish type, and decisively of mil-
itary mould and aspect. The air is that of the ec-
clesiastic, induced upon a form and temperament
which was thoroughly that of the soldier. The con-
tour, symmetricai and rotund, is expressive of a
hopeful, enterprising, and chivalrous, rather than of
a reflective turn. One would say that the outward
life is more to this man than the inward life. The
intense attitude is that of one whose own emotions
and impressions rule his animal system, leaving
him little under the control of persons or things
around him. He is self-prompted, self-possessed,
eure, detcrmined, unhesitating, firm ; but not re-
morseless,.or inexorable. He is fertile in resources;
nor ever desponds because he has no means of help
left him. He is nice in his perceptions, has a keen
relish for enjoyment ; and — must it not be said ? is
of a pleasure-loving constitution ? One would not
think him the ascetic, or the self-tormentor. He is
well fleshed, and sanguineous, and is accustomed —
80 oné might ^urmise — to adjust all differences be-

HIS SYSTEM. 37

tween flesh and spirit in a reasonable manner. If
imaginative, it is only within the narrowest limits :
his imagination lights up at a spark, but as it has
little oil of its own, it does not bum with any rich,
copious, or continuous splendor. Yet assuredly
there is nothing malignant in this physiognomy : it
indicates no acerbity, no sullen pride, no retention
of anger. This man is too happy in himself to
harbor a resentment.

Thus far, then, the medallion consists with the
history of " Saint Ignatius ;" but it must be con-
fessed that if any score of portraits, unnamed,were
spread on the table, and it were demanded that the
founder of the order of Jesuits should be singled
out from among them, several probably of that
number would be selected sooner than this. If, in-
deed, this be the image of the author of that Insti-
tute, how shrouded was that intelligence; — ^how
many fathoms deep was that mind seated, which
conceived a scheme for ruling the world, and which
went far toward actually ruling it !

CHAPTER II.

LOYOLA's EARLY YEARS, and CONVERSION,

GuiPuscoA, the proviace shut in at the angle of
the Bay of Biscay by an offset of the Pyrenean
range, and by its continuation westward, small as
it is, boasted of several ancient families whose cas-
tles decked the slopes of its mountain rampart.
Among these none was more distinguished, at the
close of the fifteenth century, than that of Bertram,
Lord of Ognez and Loyola. Inigo, the eighth son
and thirteenth child* of this count, and of his wife,
Mary Saéz de Balde and Ricaide, was horn in the
year 1491. The opening graces of his person, and
his aspiring temper, seeraed to destine him to shine
in courts and camps. At an early age he was sent
as a page to the court of Ferdinand and Isabella,
where he acquired every accomplishment that was
most esteeraed in such a place, although barely
fumished, if at all, with the rudiments of mental
cultiire.

In this court, however, and while putting little
restraint upon the passions of youth, it is affirmed,
nor should we doubt the allegation, that he stood
distinguished among his companions by his absti-
nence from profane language, by his abhorrence of

* " Tavieron estos cavalleros cinco bijas, y ocho hijos." — Riba-
DENEIRA. See note at the end of the volume.

/

SARLY LIFE. 29

it as indulged in by others, by a reverential behav-
ior toward the ministers of religion,' by a contempf.
of sordid gains, and by his dislike of gambling.
These germs of a noble temper, and of moral sensi-
tiveness, have never been wanting in the conforma-
tion of men whose after life has entitled them, in
any true sense of the word, to be styled great, and
Loyola, undonbtedly, has a claira, on some grounds,
to this epithet. Although the grace of Heaven may ^
often make the wicked good, yet its province is not
to make the little great : those who are to be such
are horn, not made.

LfOyola, we are told, disdained to take the share
due to him of the spoils of a captured town — Naja-
ra, deeming it unbecoming in a Christian and a
man to defiie his hånds with another's goods, al-
though taken in lawful war. Not less placable than
brave, he was never retentive of injuries : — an adroit
peaceraaker, moreover, and so well skilled, by intui-
tive discernment of human nature, and by preco-
cious sagacity, in the art of arbitration, and so suc-
cessful in his endeavors to Bring fierce spirits to rea-
son, that at an age to which offices of this kind are
very seldom assigned, the management of difficult
negotiations had, in several instances,been entrusted
to him by public persons. It seems to have been
his gift to feel his way uiierringly through the in-
tricacies of human nature, and to dive into every
bosom ; and whoever possesses this intuition, comes,
by consent of all, into the place of leader in his
circle ; for the discerning of spirits is the foundation
of power.

Loyola pursued the career of pleasure and worldly

30 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

ambition without check until he had completed his
twenty-ninth year; when he was snatched from
thai course by a hånd unseen, and set forward upon
another path.

France and Spain were at this time again c#a-
tending for the possession of the border provinces,
and Navarre, contrary to treaties, was still held by
Charles of Austria. To recover this ground, a large
force had been sent across the boundary by Francis,
with the intention of recovering Navarre for the
family of Jean d'Albret. By this force Pampeluna
was invested, in which a garrison, wanting in cour-
age or in loyalty, or in both, meditated a surrender.
The gallant liiigo, although not in principal com-
mand, was there present, and would fain have
headed the defence of the place ; but after venting
indignant reproaches to no effect upon his country-
men, he retired — with one companion, to the cita-
del, where he incited those who held it to maintain
their position to the last. A breach in the walls
was how^ever soon effected by the French artillery ;
and while Loyola, with a few, stopped the way by
their personal prowess, he was struck by a hall on
the right leg, and by a splinter from the wall on the
left, and fell in the breach. On this the garrison at
once surrendered ; but the assailants, not insensible
— for Frenchmen have not often skown themselves
80 — to the claims qf the brave, rendered every need-
ful office of humanity to their gallant prisoner ; and
they did it in a manner befitting his rank. More-
over, as it appeared that the injuries he had sus-
tained were too serious to be speedily reraedied, he
was sent off, with all care, to the paternal castle,

BARLY LIFE. 81

ttot fax dbtant from Pampeluaa, on the northem
side of the mountain ridge.

It was thu8 that Loyola, with far better fortune
than often attends the wounded and vanquished
eoldier's lot, found himself at home, in the hånds of
assiduous nurses, and with every aid at hånd which
love and skill cduld furnish. But the cure of his
wounds was tardy ; for the fractured bone had been
hurriedly or badly set ; nor, such was the opinion
of the surgeons, could a perfect cure be hoped for
uniess violence, frightful to think of, were anew åp-
plied to the limb. This torture, however, the patient
endured with the cahn fortitude of a soul strong in
will. Nevertheless the shock, which was rendered
so much the more prejudicial to the animal frame
by the stem control which the mind had, at the
moment, exercised over the body, seemed to threaten
his life, Mortal symptoms had come on. It was
the eve of SS. Peter and Paul when the gallant sol*
dier's sorrowing friends called in the ministers of
religion to perform their last offices in ^reparation
for death.

That which foUows involves no miracle; nor
would it demand any special notice, except as an
instance which may be noted as characteristic in
the personal history of a man like Loyola. It is, in
faet, one of several of the same claSs, occurring at
intervals throughout his course, and remarkable
only when regarded in connection with what might
be termed the anti-supematuralism of the Jesuit In-
stitute, and which is its distinction, as compared
with the style of the Romish Church generaUy, or
with that of the other religions orders. A scomful

33 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

exhibition of such incidents is not the mode of treat-
ment proper to them ; for contempt solves no prob-
lem in human nature, nor can silence on siich
occasions be appropriate ; for not a particle of evi-
dence, tending to clear up the perplexity that at-
taches to Loyola's personal history, ought to be lost
sight of. Even if a " saint," in the legendary sense
of the phrasfe, he was more than a " saint" in that
sense : — he was better than a " saint," and he lived
to see the unprofitableness, if not to denounce the
hoUowness, of much which his Church has been
used to commend. Worthy of notice is the faet
that, breathing as he did the atmosphere of a mira-
cle-loving community, and himself — if these inci-
dents are genuine — far from constitutionally insen-
sible to excitements of this order, yet had recourse
so sparingly to any such means of ruling the minds
of men. He felt that while relying upon more ra-
tional modes of government, he could well dispense
with the precarious aids of superstition. Siirfh was
his knowledge of human nature, and such the plas-
tic power of his hånd, that, in moulding the thou-
sand hearts which his Institute was to blend into
one, he felt himself exempt from the poor necessity
of taking up the tools of the magician.

But the patient lies at the point of death ; — the
physician declares him to have passed beyond the
reach of human skill, unless the disorder should
take a favorable turn that very night ; — the priest
too was withdrawn from the chamber. Ignatius,
we are told, had always cherished a specially de-
vout regard to the Prince of the Apostles, in whose
honor he had, during his years of gayety, composed

«^

EARLY LIFE. 33

hymns. In this night, and before midnight, and
•while life was ebbing fast, this very Apostle — even
St. Peter himself — seemed to stand before him* at
the foot of the couch — or so he dreamed, and admin-
istered, as from above, that aid which earthly skill
could not afford. The current tumed — a life-pulse
beat through every limb — ^and the soul, empowered
so to do by Heaven's own mandate — took posses^
sion anew of its quarters.

A fresh illustration, however, was yet to be
afforded of Loyola's energy of will, for as his re-
covery advanced, it was found that the fractured —
the re-fractured bone, had so united as to present
an unsightly protrusion, just where the well-turned
limb should show a graceful outline. This deform-
ity was, in his esteem, an intolerable ill ; for what
is life, with all its splendors, to one whose stocking
could never be made to fit without a rumpie ? Al-
tbough forewarned that the removal of this bony
excrescence could not be effected without infdcting
the most exquisite anguish, Loyola yielded himself
once again to the martyrdom of a terrible operation.
While his attendants fainted in witnessing the hor-
rors of it, he, unbound, and without a groan, en-
dured the surgeon's tools, indicating his anguish
only by the tight clench of his hånds. That the
motive for undergoing this anguish was such as
is alleged, his biographer asserts — et quod me
audiente narravit — ut habiles atque elegantes ur-
banas ocreas gestare posset, secari os jussit.

* Maffei says, per quietem videre sibi Tisus est eundem apostolum.
.... Bibadeneira, — Apostolorum PrincepB cælitus ad eum miasuøi
eique yisus eøt.

2*

34 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

Ignatius survived this new trial of the strength
of his constitution ; and although this last opera-
tion had removed a deformity, the limb had sus-
tained too much injury to allow him to indulge the
hope of ever again shining, as heretofore, in chiv-
alrous array, or in the shows and revebries of a
court. His return to the world being thus cut off,
his after-fonned resolution to turn his eye forever
from its glare, was no doubt rendered so much the
less dif&cult to adopt, and to adhere to.

Many weeks of languishing upon his couch had
however yet to be endured by Ignatius. To be-
guile the hours, he called for some of those tales of
chivahy which he had been accustomed to peruse.
But none were at hånd ; or at any rate he had ex-
tracted the entertainment of such as the castle
could fiirnish. Two books of devotion, both in the
vemacular tongue^a Life of Christ, and some
ascetic memoirs, or legends of the desert — some
one of those collections— Sanctorum Flores — ^which
enrich Roman Catholic Uterature. In these com-
positions everything is held to be true which is
found to subserve the purpose intended, that, name-
ly, of lulling the reason and conscience, by a gentle
excitement of the fancy, and of the feelings.

These books, looked into at first with listless
vexation, soon set on fire the very soul of Ignatius.
Aé every fresh page was turned, sparks fell thick,
and thicker still, upon materials so combustible as
were those of this soldier's nature. That great-
ness which the soul draws upon itself by the habit-
ual contemplation of infinitude — the steady purpose
too, and the unconquerable will, and the unearthly

EARIjY LIFE. 35

abstraction, and the lofty contempt of whatever the
world most admires and covets — all these rudiments
of spiritual heroism won the admiration of a spirit
like Loyola's sensitive and generous, and now broken
off by a sudden violence from the incitements of
worldly passions, although in no degree sickened of
them.

Then these legends, with their lavish wonders,
while they kindle the imagination as poetryy com-
mand the feelings too, as history — as something
real and true ; or they do so to those whose reason
no scepticism has ever troubled ; and where neither
a severe good sense, nor a correct taste imposes any
restraints, there is a peculiar charm derived from
that quaintness of style which so easily amalga-
mates the elements of true sublimity with whatever
is frivolous and grotesque. In these tales the vast-
ness of religion lends a force to what is jejune or
ridiculous, and imparts an intensity to the recrea-
tion which the mind thence receives.

Moreover, inasmuch as the anchoretic and mo-
nastic life has been of oriental and Egyptian origin,
it draws pecuUar means of fascination, from its cir-
cumstances and scenery, when brought before the
imagination of the. western races. All enchant-
ments have travelied from east to west ; and entirely
stripped of its arientcH docorations, it may well be
doubted if the ascetic institute would so easily have
triumphed as it did in Western Europe. The sul-
try wUdemess, bristled with borrid rock — ^the ardent
heavens — the sepulchral cell — the solitary palm
anear it, shooting heavenward its feathery crest,
and then thewildemess infested with monsters, and

36 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

the air peopled with spirits, good and evil, alto-
gether show a picture which entrances the imagi-
nation, at least of those who are ignorant of what
is the reality of the hermit's life in an Arabian wil-
derness.

The " Life of Christ," which is said to have been
put into the hånds of Loyola at this time, along
with th|e " Lives of the Saints," was probably one
of those meagre and decorated compilations from
the Evangelists which the Church of Rome has
thought it safe to afford to the laity.* Not only is
this supposition the only probable one, in such a
case, but it is even indicated by the paucity, or
rather the narrow range of those references to the
New Testament, which occur in the writings of the
Jesuit Founder. The reader of the "Spiritual
Exercises^' is compelled to suppose that the author's
acquaintance with Holy Scripture must have been
extremely limited ; at least that it was so at the
time when these singular compositions passed from
his hånd ; and we are confidently told that this was
at the moment immediately foUowing his conver-
sion.

It appears, however, to have been the " Lives of

* The " Life of Ghrist" most in repute at this period was that of
Ludolphtts of Saxony, a monk of the fourteenth centuiy. It was
originally written in Latin, but has been translated into most of the
langaages of the continent There is, in the British Museam, a
Spanish black letter edition — a very Hteral version of the Latin,
published at Alcala, in 1502-3, in 4 vols. 4to. This probably was
the book put into the hånds of Loyola, and indeed was so, if we
may trust the Italian biographer, Bartoli If so, a conjecture here-
after to be advanced, relative to the sources of the " Spiritual Exer-
daes/' will receive some incidental confirmation.

EARLY LIFE. 37

the Saints," rather than the " Life of Christ" that
atfirst fired the ambition of Loyola^s soul, although
afterwards the simple evangelic history seems to
have dislodged the legends from his mind. " Why
should not I," he exclaimed, '' with the help of God,
emulate the holy Dominic, or the holy Francis?"

These breathings of a new ambition were how-
ever still mingled with sighs and groans, produced
by the struggle of earthJy passions in his bosom.
The bright enticements which hitherto had en-
gaged all his thoughts and desires, continued to
exert their unabated influence over him ; and his
inmost soul was racked by the alternate sway of
these opposite forces. It seemed as if his very
spirit must have been riven by the grasp, on either
hånd, of mighty powers, '^ contrary the one to the
otber."

But while thus agitated and distracted, Loyola
was acquiring a species of leaming, which, as the
master and guide of other souls, was necessary to
quahfy him for his office. He leamed, or heleamed
psychologically, if not scripturally, in the midst of
these conflicts, to discriminate between the true and
the false — the genuine and the spurious, among
those indistinct or disguised influences to which the
human spirit, in the present state, is subjected, and
it was thus that he became an experienced director
of consciences. The "Spiritual Exercises" give
proof of this practiced skill, and whatever opinions
we may entertain of the general quality and ten-
dency of Jesuitism, it pught to be acknowledged
that the writings of its founder show him to have
passed through the stages of a moral revolution.

38 IGNATIUS LOYOLAi

which is essentially the same under all systems,
professedly Christian. With Loyola, however, this
conversion seems never to have gone forward be-
yond a mid-way position, and it left him therefore
at a distance from the home of evangelic peace,
He did not recognize, or he had never discerned,
in the Scriptures, those first truths which imparted
life and power to Luther's course, as the Reformer
of Christendom.

Among the musings, seemingly good, which
might entertain his solitary hours, he did not hes-
itate to ascribe to an evil origin — to the suggestions
of an adversary, all such as were followed by rest-
lessness, torpor, or the weariness of a soul iU-con-
tent with itself ; while he welcomed, as coming
from above, those meditations which were not
merely pleasant at the moment, but which, as they
passed away, left the mind in the calm hilarity of
health.

Thus far let that which is genuine be acknowl-
edged as such. At the point where Loyola tums
oflf from the path of Scriptural spirituality, the com-
plexion of the narrative becomes at once so unlike
that with which the reader of the New Testament
is familiar, that the risk of confounding the one
with the other is small.

Whatever may be thought of Loyola's spiritual
condition at the moment when he tumed his back
upon the world, yet toward the world, and in rela-
tion to its falsø notions, and its pernicious courses,
doubtless he had chosen a better part. If still th^re
were illusions intervening between himself and a
pure Christianity, the illusions subsisting between

EARLY XIFE. 89

hiiQ and thé world were the world's illusions, noi
his. His impressions of things eternal were just^
and they were of the deepest kind : his conscience
had been awakened, his sense of individual dement
was keen and tormenting ; his self-upbraidings
were in the last degree severe. He approached
the throne of offended justice as a trembling cul-
prit ; but there he undertook the desperate task of
expiating the guilt of past years by bodily torments,
such as the most renowned saints had themselves
practiced, and had applauded.

Among these modes, unavailing as he found them,
of assuaging the anguish of his soul, and of placa-
ting the wrath of heaven, a pilgrimage to Jerusa-
lem, to be performed barefoot, and with daily flagel-
lations and fastings, was the one which most en-
gaged his thoughts, and he waited only to have so
far recovered ^he use of his shattered limbs as to
render Æuch an attempt not utterly impracticable.
Might not the trembling penitent in this manner
hope to merit, at length, some tokens of the divine
favor ? An error, we reckon it, to think that he
could, in any such mode, blot out the records of a
Ufe of sin ; but an error, surely, less fatal than is
that of those who swell such records daily, without
fear ! But these deep workings of the now quick*-
ened spirit, and this anguish in the consciousness
of guilt, and these torturing practices of expiation,
mitst be regarded as unintelligible phenomena if
they do not, eren by the very extravagance that
attends them, attest the supremacy of the moral
impulses of human nature. What account could
be given of any such agonies of the heart, if maa

40 I6NATIUS LOYOLA.

were not a member of a moral system ; or what
would mean this dismay — this dread (rf an here-
after, while nature smiles around him, if he were
not indeed amenable to future justice ? No inter-
pretation could be put upon a course of conduct such
as tbat of the ascetic and devotee, if man were not
hastening forward to the presence of the Almighty,
as his Judge and Saviour ?

While thus struggling with his own emotions,
and digesting his plans of expiation — at midnight,
and during a vigil — ^so he told his friends — the Vir-
gin Mother, with the infant Jesus in her arms, efful-
gent in celestial majesty, presented herself before
him, and, for some space of time, with incredible
benignity remained in his view! How did this
vision give intensity to the desire which already
was intense, to achieve his pilgrimage to the Holy
City ! But a favor so signal produced more tban a
transient effect upon his dispositions ; for it sickened
him forever of things terrestrial ; — it gave him an
abiding disrelish of every sensual enjoyment ; — it
deadened within his bosom all worldly ambition ; —
it set him free from the enthralment of every infe-
rior passion. The splendor of that vision seemed
in a moment to efface whatever had belonged to his
former consciousness.

The memoirs of Loyola, composed partly in
Spanish, partly in Italian, by Gonsalvo, the mate-
rials of which were furnished, it is said, by the saint
himself, in a conversation held with the writer, a
year dnly before his death, narrate this vision in
terms implying a full belief in its recditf/, and yet
with an intimation that Loyola himself observed a

EARLY LIFE. 41

modest hesitation in assuming it lo have been, in
any proper sense, miraculous. This writer, in men-
tioning the happy and permanent consequences of
the vision upon the holy father's disposition, says —
Ex quo existimari potest, rem illam divinitus con-
tigisse, tametsi id ipse affirmare non audebat. All
he would do was to assert with confidence the facts
as above stated; but to trace them to their imme-
diate cause, he would not venture. A later biog-
rapher* omits the — non audebat.

And where Loyola himself allows us to accept a
narrative as true, yet with liberty to think of it as
involving a miracle or not, we may freely do so, and,
on his ownshowing, may stop short in the hypothe-
sis of an illusion of the brain. But were the moral
and the physical consequences of this vision alto-
gether such or so permanent as he alleged them to
be ? On this question we have no certain meåns
of coming to a conclusion ; for while it would be
equally unphilosophical and uncandid to assume
that Loyola's religions impressions must have been
altogether factitious, because our theology teaches
us so to regard them, we cannot be warranted, oh
the other hånd, in implicitly accepting them as
genuine, on testimony such as that of his biogra-
phers, even if we may believe them honest. During
the rest of his life, say they, as often as he cast his
eyes upward to the vault of heavcn, which he fre-
quently did, all mortal interests showed themselves
in their vile aspect, and he was seized with an in-
credibly ferven t longing to reach his home above.

* Ribadeneira.

42 IGNATIU9 LOYOLA.

" How vile does earth appear, while I look upon the
heaveus !"

Meantime Loyola gained strength, both of body
and mind ; yet he still thought himself unequal to
the pilgrimage he contemplated ; and he sought to
divert his impatience to break away from all earthly
ties, by a hterary employment, of which the ex-
ploits of the saints were the subject, and in the ex-
ecution of which he no doubt secured for himself
soi^e personal improvement, The precise nature
of these amusements is thus described by one of the
biographers : In order to aid his memory, he fairly
transcribed, in a neat and handsome volume, the
most remarkable acts and sayings of Christ, of the
blessed Virgin, and of the other saints : the pas-
sages relating to Christ were written in letters of
gold ; those to the blessed Virgin in purpie ; and
the other saints in various colors.

These occupations, however, and the self-denying
practices to which he addicted himself, did not fail
to awaken the fears of his elder brother now (be-
come lordof the patrimonial domain) for his welfare,
who, in all modes of affectionate remonstrance and of
stem rebuke, labored to bring him back to the paths
of worldly ambition and of pleasure. But from these
importunities he withdrew himself on pretext of vis-
iting his friend the Duke of Najara at Navarret ;
and he left the paternal home attended by two ser-
vants only, Having — the better to conceal his pur-
pose — fulfilled the requirements of friendship in a
courteous manner, he dismissed his two attendants,
and, after expending a part of the money he had
taken with him for his journey, in pious offices, he

mS CONYERSION. 43

set forth alone, upon a mule, to practke by the way,
and without witnesses, those cruel austerities with
which he had resolved to maltreat and vanquish the
body. Thus eluding the intervention of his friends,
and using such subterfuges as pious ingenuity
might contrive, and the occasion demand, he deter-
mined to divert a little from the road leading to
Barcelona (whence he intended to sail for the Holy
Land) for the purpose of paying his devotions at a
much frequented shrine of the blessed Yirgin at
Montserrat, four leagues from Barcelona, and where
there was an establishment of Benedictine monks.
The church of the Benedictine monastery, situ*
ated on Montserrat, is described by a writer of thai
age as resplendent throughout with gold, and stored
like a royal palace, with the most costly articles —
the offerings of kings ; and its treasures and em-
bellishments as vastly surpassing those of the cele-
brated church of St. James at Compostella. • Before
the altar of the Yirgin seventy-five lamps, greater
and smaller, were burning night and day. The
mountain itself, by its height, its marvellous con*
tour, and the picturesque beauty of the scenery
around it, might be regarded as one of the miracles
of nature. Although a mass of solid rock, the
mountain sides are beautified with a spontaneous
growth of odoriferous shrubs, and of trees rich in
. foliage. The position of the monastery is so ele-
vated that the clouds often shut out from it the
view of the lower world, and are outspread, as a
pavement, beneath it. In the rear, jagged rocks,
of great elevation, give to the mountain that ap-
pearance which its name so well indicates, These

44 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

points — such they appeår as seen from a distance —
offer, in faet, many level surfaces, upon which
chapels and oratories, connected with the monas-
tery, have been erected, and which are occupied by
anchoréts of the Benedictine order.

Loyola did not doubt that a visit to this mon-
astery would avail him much in that conflict which
was still renewed, at times, within his bosom, be-
tween earthly passions and heavenly purposes.

Severely had he chastised his flesh with the lash,
nightly, since leaving his home ; but now he thought
to obtain far more effective aids in the preservation
of an inviolate purity, by placing himself in a for-
mal and solemn manner under the immediate
guardianship of the always-virgin Mother ; and the
more confidently did he seek this powerful aid
against the wiles of the inward enemy, encouraged
and incited as he had so lately been by her mani-
fested good will toward himself. To "the most
blessed Virgin," therefore, he tendered an irrevoca-
ble vow of chastity. That this consecration, and
this immolation of himself, the offering of a devoted
heart, was graciously accepted at his hånd, he had
this evidence, inasmuch as from that moment, and
onward to the end of hie course, Ignatius, " through
the intercession of the Virgin," lived wholly exempt
from the assaults of earthly desire ; and even from
everj^movement of the soul which might trouble
his peace.

But how dangerous and how difficult is the course
of those who attempt to tread the path of " Chris-
tian philosophy" without the help of a spiritual
director and master, let all leam from what befell

HIS coNVERsroir. 45

the great Ignatius himseif about this time ! The
catholic zeal of Ferdinand had not yet succeeded
in sweeping the Spanish soil clean of Moorish abom-
inations ; for even in bis own provinces, and on
every side, might still be seen, not the vestiges
merely of Mahometan misbelief, but the persons
also of many who, as conforming Moriscoes, reeked
with that poison. Into the company of one such
" miscreant" the young convert happened to fall on
his road ; and when the customary trivialities had
given way to more serious discourse, the gravest of
questions touching the blessed Yirgin came to be
discussed. The two travellers proceeded from the
language of courteous debate to that of vehement
controversy and objurgation ; the Moor admitting
a fragment only of the orthodox belief on this point,
Ignatius strenuously maintaing the entire faith of
the church. In vain were reasons urged, in vain
was the light of truth presented to the eyes of the
impious man, who at length, with fierce impatience,
dashing his spurs into the sides of his beast, left
his antagonist behind, in all the fervor of the
hottest resentment. The man was gone past hope
of conversion ! Loyola's impulse was to push for-
ward, and plunge a dagger into the heart of one
who, with polluted lips, had dared to derogate from
the honor of the Clueen of Angels ! How should
he decide between the promptings of the soldier-
blood which throbbed in his veins, and the gentler
motives of piety ? But did not these very motives
demand that he should inflict a summary ven-
geance upon this servant of the devil ? Ought he
to leave unpunished blasphemies such as these?

46 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

From this perplexity he relieved himself by appeal-
ing to a guidance which he thought might more
safely be followed than his own judgment. The
Moor having passed forward beyond a spot where
two roads met, Loyola tlirew the reins on the neck
of his mule, resolving to abide by the choice which
his beast should make for him — ^between the pUr-
poses of vengeance, and the misgivings of a waver-
ing zeal. Should the mule, of its own accord, take
the road — a broad road — on which the Saracen
had galloped forward, he would then feel himself
to be heaven-commissioned to foUow him, and to
buty a dagger — ^pugio fidei — in his body; but if
the other and the less open road were taken, then
he would content himself, short of vengeance.
The mule quietly trotted forward upon this rugged
but better path ; and the saint's biographers, who
are not less wise than was their master's mule,
congratulate the Society upon the occasion of his
escape from blood-guiltiness.

Ignatius, thus tranquillized in spirit by the happy
option of his beast, pressed forward toward Mont-
serrat, and, entering a village near it, he made
sundry purchases in preparation for his intended
pilgrimage. These consisted of a long hempea
cloak of the most rugged texture, a tunic, a rope
for a girdle, shoes of matted Spanish broom, a pil-
grim's staff turned at the end, and a drinking bowl.
These articles he attached to the pommel of his
saddle, whence they hung, as no very ornamental
appendage to his equipment.

Ignatius has now fairly turned his back upon
the world, and has set forward upon the arduous

HIS CONTERSION. 47

path which is said to lead direct from earth heaven-
ward. He enters the churck of the monastery, and
there devoutly salutes the present divinity. His
next business is to set about an ample confession
of the sins of his past life — a recital of which, from
his written memoranda, occupied the hours of three
entir& days. Moreover, to the father who lent his
ears to this confessicm, he opened the hitherto con-
cealed purposes of his soul, as to his future course,
in adopting the practices of the most renowned of
the saints. He next surrendered the remaining
contents of his purse to the use of the poor — ^bo-
stowed upon a ragged mendicant, under favor of
the night, the costly garb he had lately wom ; and
with eager haste took to himseif the pilgrim gear
which he had just providéd. His right foot being
still in a swoUen state, he indulged with a shoe ;
the left was bare, and his head also.

Too many, as he knew, were ready to be " phi-
losophers" so far as to the squalid garb, and no
further ; — too many found it easier to change a
cloak than to transmute the soul. Ignatius, there-
fore, dreading'for himseif any such pretences, gave
all diligence to the care of his spirit, so that the
habiliments of poverty and abnegation should truly
symbolize the condition of the inner man.

Moreover, as it was the usage with those who
were about to enter any order of knighthood to
pass one entire night, armed, in a church, he re-
solved, in his own case, to adopt this practice on
the occasion of hi? formally dedicating himseif to
the Christian warfare. Thus minded, and having
suspended his sword and dagger in the church, he

48 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

spent the whole night in frout of the altar of the
most holy Virgin — now standing — now on his
kneesi, with all humility imploring pardon for his
past ofiences — devoting himself to the divine ser-
vice, and not ceasing especially, with eamést sup-
plication, to pVopitiate " the blessed mother of God."

It was thus, in the year 1522, the eve of the
Annunciation, that Ignatius consecrated himself to
the Christian warfare ; and the coincidence of time
has not escaped the notice of his biographers, that
nearly at the same moment when this holy man
was devoting body and soul, under the. auspices of
the Virgin, to the service of God and of mankind,
that " execrable heretic Luther," summoned to the
diet of Worms by the Emperor Charles V., enounced
the poison of his opinions, and with all insolence
proclaimed war against the apostolic chair, and im-
pugned every catholic verity. Thus does it appear,
say they — and the allegation will be assented to on
the Qpposite side, if only a transposition of names
be permitted — thus does it appear that while Satan,
on the ene side, was sending forth his chosen
champion, Christ also took care to fumish, and to
bring forward, his own servant for the defence of
the truth.

How cheaply may such assumptions be advanced,
and how easy a procedure is it for mortals to inter-
pret, each in his own sense, Heaven's govemment
of the world ! A mode of argument, if argument
it might be called, which costs so little, and which
tells with as much effect on the one side as it does
on the other, might well be dispensed with on both
sides. More to the purpose might it be to advert,

ms CONYERSION. 49

in this instance, to what is matter of faet, not of
hypothesis. Certain it is, then, that at the same
moment, two men, whose influence has been co-
extensive and permanent, present themselves on
the stage of European affairs, and each of them
formally or virtually professes to be " sent of God"
for the restoration or the maintenance of the most
momentous truths. There is however a circum-
stance attaching to the ministry of each which can-
not be regarded as of no significance, bearing, as it
does, upon their several pretensions. It is this, that
while one of these professed "servants of Christ"
declares his willingness to stand or fall by Christ's
own word, the other makes no 9uch appeal to the
authority of Scripture ; but, instead of doing so, sets
forward on his course as the champion of Mary,
placing himself under her guardianship, and looking
to her for grace and help. Presenting themselves
therefore under these conditions, undoubtedly Lu-
ther must be condemned if the rule to which he
himself appeals condemns him ; but Loyola's divine
legation falls if Mary be not in truth the arbitress
of human destinies, and the source of grace to the
world.

Instead, however, of staking a great argument
upon contrasts of this sort, or attempting to hinge
a controversy upon an antithesis, a less precarious
method of reaching a sound conclusion, in an in-
stance such as this, is — putting aside entirely all
mental reference to Loyola's illustrious contempd-
rary — to pursue his own history ; the incidents and
the characteristics of which will not fail, taken al-
together and calmly considered, to carry home to

3

50 ) IGNATIVS LOYOLA.

sound minds a conviction, not merely as to his per-
sonal merits, but as to the quality and tendency of
his doctrine and polity.

The young and handsome Spanish gentleman,
clad in sumptuous attire, his copious locks sedu-
lously arranged according to the fashion of the time,
and himself well mounted, had been seen ascending
the heights toward Montserrat ; yet, how incongru-
ous aré the appendages of his equipment, for there
are strung from the pommel of his saddle, as if he
had spoiled some luckless palmer on the road, the
coarse cloak, the shoes, the staff, the girdle, tho
bowl of a pilgrim ! But, after a little while, the
same graceful form, if indeed it could have been
recognized as the same, might be met upon the
road disguised beneath these uncouth pilgrim ao
coutrements; — painfuUy limping — one foot naked,
the other swollen and clouted, liis head bare, his
hair matted and foul, his beard rough, his nails
grown like eagle's claws, his visage sunken and
squalid ! A pestilence was then raging at Barce-
lona, and Loyola turned aside until it should abate,
to Manresa, a small town about nine miles from
MontseiTat, and where, each day, he begged a
morsel of bread from door to door. Three times
every day he smartly (quåm acerrime) chastised his
bare shoulders with the lash ; thrice every day he
attended prayers at Church, besides seven hours of
private devotion ; and every week he confessed, and
received the sacrament. In this discipline of suf-
fering and humiUation he was becoming acquainted,
we are told, with the rudiments of the Christian
life.

HIS CONYERSION. 51

It was not long, however, before the real miseries
of the condition to which he had thus reduced him-
self — the revolting humiliations to which he found
himself daily exposed, and the utter wretchedness
of beggary to those who have not been bred to the
profession, produced its natural effect upon a sphit
like that of Ignatius ; for, at the very same moment
when his constitutional enthusiasm had been chilled
down to the lowest temperature by bodily suffering,
and by the sense of shame, that keen perception,
and that correctness of the reasoning faculty, which
undoubtedly distinguished him, woke up, and he
began (at the instigation of the devil, we are told)
scverely to question himself as to the course he had
adopted. " Wretched man ! what has impelled thee
to abandon home, kindred, noble fiiends, every-
thing, and thus miserably bedight, to wander up
and down, petitioning for sustenance, and become
the companion of the very lowest of the people ?"
These thoughts, and more of the same sort, which
shook his soul, he however assigned to their tnie
source, and gained relief from them by renewed as-
sidiiity in his religions observances, and by sur-
rendering himself so much the more to the humili-
ations he had chosen. But, on this side again, the
tempter, according to his wonted wiles with the in-
experienced, incited the novice to practise such ex-
tremities of mortification as should, by their weak-
ening influence, both upon body and mind, issue in
an abandonment altogether of the penitential and
ascetic course. Furthermore he was tried by a fre-
quent, sudden, and unaccountable loss of all the
comfort and joy which heretofore he had never failed

52 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

to derive from the exercises of devotion ; neither
prayers nor psalms, nor any of the soleninities of
the church, brought him any solace. In his per-
plexity he^began to doubt if the elaborate three
4ays' confession of the sins of his life, which he had
lately effected, had indeed been complete. The
black catalogue of crimes was perhaps wanting in
some one particular, on behalf of which the wrath
of Heaven continued to follow him. The adversary
took terrible advantage against him, of this suspi-
cion. Day and night he wept; he went over, again
and again, the gromid of his late confession ; and
as one who has dropped an invaluable jewel on his
way, turns back, and with trembling diligence scru-
tinizes every inch of the ground he has trodden,
and renews the desperate search from day to day,
so did Ignatius retrace the path of his past life, even
up to the comménceraent of his moral conscious-
ness, anxiously searching among the almost effaced
impressions of memory for — the lost crime ! To
think too much of his sins was not Loyola's mis-
take ; but it was his misfortune to know so httle as
he knew of the only mode of release from the an-
guish of an awakened conscience.

A black despair seized him in the midst of this
spiritual wretchedness ; and the thought even of
self-destru€tion crossed his mind. At that time he
occupied a cell in a convent of the Dominicans,
from the window of which he had been impelled to
throw himself. He was however withheld from this
purpose by the divine mercy ; but he resolved, with
the hope of vanquishing or of placating the divine
justice, to abstain absolutely from all food, until he

HIS CONYERSION. 53

should win back the peace and joy thai had thus
lefl him. Intermitting no sacred services and no
penances, be fasted a day — and two days — and
three — and four — ^nay, an entire week; and be
would have persisted in his resolution bad not the
priest, his confessor, and who had aheady sounded
the depths of his heart, interposed, and straitly
commanded him to abandon so presumptuous an
endeavor as that of contending with the Åhnighty :
in faet he threatened him with a denial of the com-
mmiion, should he persist. Alarmed by a threat so
terrific, he took food therefore ; and, for a time, re-
gained some tranquiUity. Yet speedily he relapsed
into the same condition of ihward distress, and was
tempted at once to renounce his ascetic purposes,
and to return to the worid and to its enjoyments.
With this temptation also he grappled successfully ;
and at length, and as if by a convulsive plunge, he
extricated himself at once, and forever, from these
dangerous entanglements.

This critical turn in Loyola's religious course de-
serves a moment's attention ; and the more so be-
cause it may fairly be regarded as indicative of that
energy of the intellectual faculty, and of that su-
premacy of practical good sense, which are so clearly
manifested in his after-course. At this turn, and
for an instant, the founder of the Society seems to
come forward, although we presently afterwards
quite lose sight of him.

He suddenly came to the conclusion that the
" mystery of confession," attended to in the mannei;
and for the purposes for which he had used it, so
fer from having been beneficial to him, had been of

54 lONATIUS LOYOLA.

ill effect. The divine mercy, interposing for his de-
liverance, had brought him to see — and to see clearly
— ^that all this anguish of mind, and all this tor-
menting excitement, and all these gloomy suspi-
cions, were from " the adversary" — the evil spirit.
At once therefore, and without any further hesitar
tion, he resolved to consign the entire delinquencies
of his past life to perpetual oblivion. In this way
not only did he himself obtain relief from his late
wretchedness, but he became qualified also to coun-
sel and to help others who, in like marmer, should
be tempted.

Loyola^s confessor, as we have already said, had,
in a prudent use of his spiritual authority, forbidden
his persistence in the fast, by means of which he
had presumptuously thought to vanquish the Al-
mighty ; and this father had also judiciously advised
him to relinquish the search for forgotten offences,
and to content himself with the ample confession
which he had already made. But it was his own
individual energy that at length prompted him to
take a course which his church would not have rec-
ommended. It is thus that minds of high intensity
always take their own counsel, at the most critical
moments. And so again — if we follow Gonsalvo —
the briefest, but, as it appears, tbe most trustwor-
thy, of the contempdrary biographers — ^Loyola ex-
hibited the vigor of his imderstanding in an instance
in which the mere visionaiy would otherwise have
decided. Even at this early stage of his course he
had commenced that care of souls which afterwards
employed so much of his time: many resorted to
him daily, seeking spiritual aid. This labor of

mS CONTERSION. 55

charity, to which the later hours of the day were
devoted, would not fail to suggest many fresh sub-
jects of meditation, and to occasion some excitement
of the animal spirits ; and the consequence was that
when, at length, he betook himself to his couch,
sleep was driven away by spiritual exaltations, and
by illuminations, and by consolations, the most pe-
cuUar. Finding himself thus deprived of a large
portion of the time — ^not too much for thewelfare
of the body — which, on due consideration, he had
set apart for the purpose, and considering that the
whole of his time was in faet given to the service of
God, and to the edification of his neighbor, he began
to question whether these comforts and these illu-
minations were indeed from the good Spirit, or were
not rather temptations ; and forthwith, and on the
ground of this doubt, he determined to reject and
exclude all such invasions of his allotted hours of
repose. Sleep he would. when sleep was the proper
business of the hoiir.

The saint having thus, by a convulsive effort, dis-
engaged himself from the load of his past sins, and
freed himself also from many specious temptations,
made rapid advancements in virtue and spiritual
understanding. Nor was this all ; for about this
time, as we are assured, certain marvellous revela-
tions were granted to him, which, if the representa-
tions of some of his biographers are to be received,
must have been in the strietest sense supematuraL
It is said that, suddenly, and while reciting the
ofSce of the Virgin, a light shone around him, in
the midst of the effulgence of which he saw a tri*
angular figure, symbolizing the sacred mystery of

66 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

the Trinity. This was not the miracle : but it is
added that, deeply raoved by this vision, and in in-
tervals of fits of sobbing, he spoke — continuously,
profoundly, and perspicuously, upon the most ardu-
ous of all theological subjects ! Nor was this all ;
for although, at this time, he could barely profess
himself master of the arts of writing and reading,
he actually composed a treatise upon the Trinity,
occupyihg many pages (it is said twenty-four) —
unfortunately for sacred science, the manuscript has
perished — and which displayed an intelligence and
a spiritual discemment far surpassing the unas-
sisted powers even of the most accomplished and
best furfiished minds. In faet, the treatise thus
spontaneously produced by an uninstructed cav-
alier is declared to have been an inspired work. It
should be said that Gonsalvo, who professes to have
derived his account from Loyola's own lips, makes
no mention of this treatise ; nor does he support the
other and more prolix narratives, as to what is said
to have foUowed.

It is affirmed that, at another time, a revelation
was made to him of the deepest secrets of nature ;
or, at least, of those abstruse parts of philosophy
with which ordinary minds become acquainted only
by means of painful and long-continued studies.
All science, sacred and secular, was thus imparted
to the founder of the Society of Jesus, on the easy
terms of seeing a vision ! Whatever might be the
advantage permanently derived by Loyola from
these miraculous Communications, it is certain that
they did not, in his own opinion, supersede the ne-
cessity of his undergoing a course of elementary and

ms CONVERSION. 57

college education, and which to him was in an ex-
treme degree irksome and diflicult. It may seem
Strange that the saint'^ over-eager eulogists should
not see that, while their master's true reputation is
much enhanced by the faet of his compelling him-
self, at the age of thirty, first to leam his grammar
among boys, and afterwards to pass through a
course of study at two universities, it is only dam-
aged, or is brought altogether under suspicion, by
their inventing for his glory this narrative of won-
ders. Loyola was indeed an extraordinary — if not
a great man ; and we must persist in thinking him
such, spite of hisadmirers.*

We reach now a point in Loyola's course, at
which again a glimpse of what we ought to find in
the history of such a man presents itself. Ah*eady
it has been mentioned that he early disengaged
himself from the cobweb entanglements of the as-
cetic life. Austere practices he did indeed main-
tain ; but a mere ascetic he could not be ; no such
style of piety could he adopt, as his end and aim ;
he felt that he had a vocation which could not be
foUowed in the cell or the wilderness, and that he
was to plough for himself a track right across the
open field of the world's affairs. He could compel

* In place of the more highly elaborated narratives of the con-
temporaiy and succeeding Jesuit writers, Gronsalvo thus suc-
cinctly mentions his master's supematural initiation in natural
philoøophj. " Alio tempore objectus est ejos menti, magna cam
sjNiitus alacritate, modus, quo mundum Deus condidit. Sibi autem
▼idere videbatur rem quamdam albam, ex qua nonnulli radii egre-
diebantur, et ex qua Deus lumen emittebat. Ipse tamen neque hæc
satis explicare poterat, neque meminisse earum illustrationum, quas
tum in ejos animum Deus impiimebat.'' — Cap. iii.

3*

58 lONATIUS LOYOLA.

himself to fast, after the most severe manaer, as
often as he thought it good so to afflict himself;
and a Cossack, also, can siistain hunger as long ;
but both have work to do, which cannot be
done upon a diet of lettuces and water.

There was, however, one gift or grace to which
the highest importance has always been attached
by those who have practised and applauded the
" angelic Ufe." This is what is termed " the spirit
of solitude," — ^a temper, not merely recoiling from
free intercourse with the world, and impelling its
possessor to bide himself from the converse of other
men, but throwing him always, with an intensity
of regard, upon its individual spiritual well-being.
Those most eminently endowed with the spirit of
solitude might take it as their motto, — ^^ this one
thing I do, namely, care for my own soul." But
Loyola's soul was of larger compass, and it burned
with an expansive zeal; and he could think of
himself only as the servant of others — as the guide
of souls — as the church's champion — as the apos-
tle of the faitb. In a word, he rejected this specious
selfishness — this ^^ spirit of solitude ;" or he left its
satisfactions and its honors to others. To propa-
gate the Christian doctrine in all lands — to win
souls, and to govera them, was his calling, and he
pursued it with undiverted energy ; and in the pur-
suit of it he encountered, and surmounted, obsta- ^
cles the most formidable. It is now, therefore, that
we meet for a moment the man we are in search
of, although we are so soon again to lose sight of
him ; or he is snatched from our view by his biogra-
phers.

HIS CONVER8ION. 59

Notwithstanding the care he had taken to conceal
the austerities he practised, and to disguise what
related to his origia and early history, it had at
length got abroad that a '^ saint" was about, and
moreover that this eminent devotee was member^f
a noble house, and had played a part at the court.
Speedily, therefore, he became the object of curiosity
to persons of all classes, who crowded around him
on various pretexts ; some from frivolous motives ;
but more with a sincere wish to obtain for them-
selves the benefit of his admonitions and advice in
spiritual matters.

To these, how low soever in their condition, or
degraded in their habits, he gave sedulous atten-
tion — laboring if, by any means, he might join them
to the Lord — and nothing dismayed by the extreme
squalor of their persons, or their inveterate filth.
His first care — and let us note a circumstance so
characteristic, when compared with that relish of
filth which the most noted of the ancient ascetics
professed — the first care of Ignatius, we are tdd,
was to induce his dirty visitants to put away from
themselves a poition, at least, of these adjuncts of
misery — to wash, and to adjust their tatters in the
hest manner they could.

This, done, he applied himself to the cure of the
inner man, and aware as he now was — for he had
learned it in his own experience—of the difBculty
of the task which had thus come upon him, he did
not fail earnestly to entreat the divine aid — that aid
to which he owed his own conversion, its progresS;
and the happy issue, at last, of the storms and dark-

60 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

ness, and multiform temptations, through which he
had passed.

It was then that, revolving within himself, as
well what he had leamed directly from Heaven, as
wffat his experience had taught him, he was led to
digest, and to commit to paper, various fruitful
methods of meditation and of prayer, together with
certain excellent and wljolesome precepts, which,
when duly compiled, made up that immortal book—
the " Spiritual Exercises !"

It will be convenient to defer, for a little, that
analysis of this corner-stone of the Jesuit Institute
which it is our purpose to attempt, and at present
to pursue the thread of Loyola's persiwial history.
If the faet affirmed by his biographers — ^namely, that
the book of the Spiritual Exercises^was indeed com-
posed by him, and at this time — that is to say, al-
most at the moment after his own conversion had
been consummated — if this could be placed beyond
doubt, it must be regarded as presenting an extraor-
dinary instance of sudden maturity of the intel-
lect. A parallel instance can scarcely be cited of a
literary production so whoUy unlike what might
have been looked for from the mind whence it came :
— ^it might be likened to one of those experiments
of the chemist who, by adding a few drops from his
phial, converts, in the twinkling of an eye, a sparfc-
ling fluid intaan opake substance. The hot-brained
soldier devotee, who is madman enough, not merely
to leave his home, but to deck himself in rags, and
to beg his bread superfluously from door to door —
this same devotee, whom we find at the river's side,
becoming, in a trance, a profound theologian, and

HIS CONVERSION. 61

an accomplished pbilosopher amid the blaze of a
vision ! — this man, within the compass of a few
weeks, writes a book which whatever opinion we
may be inclined to form of it at a cursory glance,
has proved its adaptation to the human mind, for
effecting the purposes it intends, through the course
of three centuries; and it has done so, on the
largest scale. This book, the work of one whom, as
we first catch a gUmpse of him, we note as a half-
crazed fanatic, and to whom, without a scruple, we
should apply the milder epithet enthusiast, — con-
tains scarcely any trace of enthusiasm, and none
of fanaticism ; nor does it bear, on its face, anything
of that patchwork style of rhapsody, inanity, and
audacity which one should confidently look for, in
such a case !

It is acknowledged that the " Spiritual Exercises"
underwent several careful revisions at later periods,
and before the time when the book was submitted
to the judgment of the Roman pontiff. To what
extent its very substance and quality were altered
in those revisions, cannot be ascertained. Moreover,
during the interval between the first composition
and the time when it was authoritatively given to
the world, it had been held by the author under
constant correction, and had received, piece by piece,
many additions. Meanwhile Loyola was himself
acquiring skill, as a practitioner, in the cure and
treatment of souls ; and for the purpose at once of
rendering service to as many as possible, and of en-
larging his own knowledge of men and of human
nature, he not only received in his cell, with benig-
nity, all who visited him, but o^asionally accepted

62 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

invitations to dinner at tbe tables of the opulent,
where, forgetful of ascetic squeamishness, but not of
his high purpose, he took occasion, from the tum of
conversation, to requite those who had spread be-
fore him a feast of things perishable, by opening
before them the banquet of things eternal. Many
there were whom, in this manner, he snatched, it
is said, from the way that is broad and easy, and
induced to set out upon that which is narrow and
difficult.

The Loyola of Jesuitism now seems to b^ coming
forward ; at least we see one whose energy carried
him instinctively away from what was inane or
unproductive, and bore him forward toward what-
ever was practical and useful ; — a man whose rea-
son was not only uppermost, but strong enough to
Control an ardent temperament, to keep in check
very vehement instincts, and to take and to hold
the mastery over a will of giant force !

But those labors of charity with which he had
burdened himself were too great for his strength,
and especially as conjoined still with too much
austerity in his mode of life : at least his biogra-
phers affirm that he did thus continue to afflict the
body. He fell ill of a fever, and was despaired of ;
but recovered, and seems to have become sensible
that vigils and severities may be carried too far.
He relaxed therefore; — he consented to wear shoes;
he covered his head abroad, and took to himself, as
winter approached, a cloak of thicker fabric.

While lying upon his pallet, Ignatius had em-
ployed himself in effecting an anxious scrutiny of
his conscience, where he discovered much cause of

I

HIS CONVERSION. 63

uneasiness, and encountered the wily adversary
anew; but from this trial he came forth at length,
strengthened in the wise and characteristic pur-
pose to dismiss, on every occasion hereafter, all
profitless musings upon the good and evil that
might be contending for mastery witbin the home
of his own bosom, and to give himself, without
distraction, to those labors by which the welfare of
other souls and the glory of God might best be pro-
moted.

^

CHAPTER III.

LOYOLA's ATTEMPT to CONVERT THE MAHOME-
TAN WORLD, AND THE FAILURE OP THE EN-
TERPRISE.

LoYOLA had bound himself by a solemn oath to
visit the Holy Land, couching within the simple
ardor of a pilgrim the higher purposes and the zeal
of an apostle. Towards his friends, who earnestly
labored to dissuade him from a joumey then so
pecuharly perilous, and the more so on account of
his feeble health, he maintained an entire reserve
as to his more lofty intention, and professed only —
what was so far true — the passionate desire he felt
to pay his devotions on the sacred spots. The mo-
tives of common prudence they fortified by appeal-
ing to his sense of responsibility toward the many
souls that had now come under his care. They
did not understand that, to a mind such as his, the
" something beyond" must always outweigh what-
ever attaches only to the present time, and to the
things nearest at hånd. At the least, said they, let
him seek a companion on whose help and counsel
he might lean in time of need ! Many such there
were who would willingly attend him, and some of
these possessed that which he did not pretend to —
an acquaintance with the popular dialects of the
East, and who had at their command also the Latin

mS FIRST ENTERPRISE. 65

and Italian languages, of which he was whoHy
ignorant.

But on this ground again Loyola's prudent friends
misunderstood the order of mind they had to do
with. His zeal was of a sort that would have lost
its intensity, or its inflation, if he had thrown him-
self at all upon the guidance of reason, or had al-
lowed himself to lean upon any support other than
that of a blind impulse. He must go, spite of all
risks, and go in destitution of all natural means.
He broke himself away, therefore, from the well-
meant importunities of his friends, and, in the face
of every suggestion of common sense, prepared him-
self for his journey. And in what consisted this
preparation? — in a determination to dispense with
every aid of an earthly kind! "The Christian
virtues," said he, " are not merely faith and charity,
but hope also;" but if he provided himself with a
purse, or if he took a companion, he should at once
impair the integrity of his faith, and ren ounce his
hope.

He had spent nearly a year at Manresa, em-
ployed in carrying forward the work of his own
conversion, in guidiug the souls of others on the
same course, and in composing, at least as to its
rudiments, the book of Spiritual Exercises. During
these months, as he himself reported to his friend
and disciple Gonsalvo, he had been favored with
many extraordinary revelations ; sometimes, to the
eye of the mind, had appeared the humanity of the
Lord, not indeed in the distinctness and proportion
of its members, but as an undefined resplendence.
Twenty times, or even forty, this might have hap-

66 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

pened to him at Manresa. In a similar manner
the blessed Virgin once and again revealed herself
to him ; and from these visions he obtained so clear
and thorough a perception and persuasion of the
great mysteries of the faith, that, even apart from
any testimony of Scripture thereto relating, he
could have suffered martyrdom in defence of them !
— a perilous confidence surely in visions, as super-
seding the testimony of Scripture, and especially
when, according to his own account, he was fre-
quently visited by counterfeit visions, hardly to be
discriminated from the genuine ! He assures us,
however, that he could always distinguish between
the true celestial splendor, and the glitter of a de-
moniacal appearance, and that the latter he was
accustomed to drive away by means of certain
passes of his walking-stick !

It was in the spring of the year 1523 that Loyola,
to the unspeakable grief of all, left Manresa, on
his way to Barcelona, intending there to take ship
for Italy. In a saint story of the vulgar stamp we
take no notice of the foUy (or worse) of the man
who, after flinging away from him a well-furnished
purse, and which was his own, absolutely goes
a-begging ft>r what, the next hour, he finds he cannot
dispense with — a morsel of bread ! This species
of absurdity runs through such memoirs of sanctity.
But how are we to deal with the same foUy when
it meets us in the life of a man like Loyola ? Ab-
surdity does not characterize his writings,— is it
then chargeable entire upon the writers of his life ?
We might think so as to some of these instances,
but not as to all.

HIS FIRST ENTERPRISE. 67

The master of a vessel shortly to sail for Italy,
agreed to give him his passage, but required that
he should bring on board a quantity of biscuit,
sufficient for his sustenance during the passage.
This "hard condition" he accepted, and proceeded
to beg from door to door the requisite store of pro-
visions, and this he did although his purse still
contained some gold pieces, which, just before sail-
ing, he deposited on a settle near to where the
vessel was moored.

Ignatius landed at Gaeta, after a stormy passage
of five days, whence he proceeded on foot to Rome,
wom out with fatigue and hunger ; for the terror
of the pestilence then raging had shut up the usual
sources of charity, He arrived on Palm Sunday,
and having visited with pious reverence the holy
piaces, he kissed the feet of Adrian VI.* At Rome
he found some Spanish gentlemen, to whom he
was known, and who repeated the remonstrances
of his friends at Barcelona, endeavoring, if possible,
to turn him from his purpose. " The Turks," said
they, " had just taken Rhodes," news which spread
dismay through Italy, and which event could not
but render a voyage through those seas ten-fold
more perilous than usually it was ! Nothing would
avail. If it must be so, then let him go sufficiently
provided with money for the joumey — at least with
enou£^h to pay his passasfe from Yenice to Pales-
tine; for even should he succeed in begging his
way from Rome to Venice, could he imagine that,
unknown* and a stranger, he should be taken on

♦ Or of Clement VIII.

68 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

board a vessel gratuitously, and for so long a
voyage ?

At length he so far yielded as to accept some gold
pieces, with which burdened, much rather than fur-
nished, he set out ; but he had not proceeded far
before, in revolving the whole matter carefuUy, he
heavily accused himself of having, by this compli-
ance, violated the vow of his profession, and re-
nounced his trust in God. At the instant he was
near to casting away indignantly the whole that
he had received ; but his better reflections told him
that this would be an aet of ingratitude to God, as
well as wastéful ; and he resolved to bestow it, little
by little, upon any poor he might meet on his way.
How worthy of notice in the history of such a man
is this curious process of alms-giving, blended with
mendicancy ! One mile on this side a village, per-
haps, Ignatius finds a tattered wretch, who can
scarcely believe his eyes in receiving from one hab-
ited like himself, and emaciate with want, a gold
coin ! The donor rejects the overflowing gratitude
of his poor brother, then limps on^exhausted ;
enters the village, and there, and whije other gold
pieces are still weighing heavy in his purse, he
humbly craves a morsel of bread from door to door *
Whether Ignatius Loyola actually perpetrated any
such foUy cannot be certainly known, nor should it
be supposed, did not the most authentic of his biog-
raphers seem to imply it as a faet ; but even if it be
so, no judicioua writer would now make a boast of
instances of infatuation such as these ? A dire pes-
tilence, as we have said, ravaged Italy at that time ;
and guards, placed at the gates of all cities and

HIS FIRST ENTERPRISE. 69

towns, stemly denied admittance to wayfaring folk,
like Igaatius, open as were such to the reasonable
suspicion of being the carriers of infection. He,
wasted, wan — his complexion squalid, his eyes
sunken, his attire foul — was driven away from the
door of inns, and compelled to lodge abroad ; and
was gazed at with dismay as he passed along the
highways. He knew not a word of the language
of the country through which he passed, and noth-
ing of the roads. He was compelled, also, by his
lameness, to drop behind the company of travellers
to which he had joined himself.

Finding that the utmost caution was used at
Yenice in excluding strangers coming from the
south, and who carried no bill of health, Ignatius,
who had none, turning aside, reached Padova, and
from that town got admittance réadily into Yenice.
There, however, no refuge was at his command ;
he would not introduce himself to the Spanish lega-
tion, and, having learned so to rest, threw his wea-
ried limbs for the night upon a vacant space in the
portico of St. Mark's ; and by day he begged his
bread.

It is said that a noble senator, near to whose pal-
ace the holy man lay stretched on the cold pave-
ment, was suddenly awakened by a voice from
Heaven, telling him that, while he lay enclosed
with sumptuous draperies, a servant of God, a pil-
grim, lay abroad, not far from his door, poor, and
destitute of aid and solace. In alarm and horror
this senator leapt from his couch — went forth, sought
for, and soon found Ignatius — brought him home
and entertained him with high respect. The next

70 lONATIUS LOTOLA.

day, however, he withdrew himself from these too
sumptuous hospitalities, and, having met with an
old friend fr(mi the Asturias, betook himself to quar-
ters where he could be more at ease.

Gladly would his host, edified by his pious de-
portment and his brief yet pertinent discourse, have
detained him as his guest ; but as this could not be,
he obtained for him the favor of a passage in a
Vessel about to sail with official persons destined for
C3rprus. Many pilgrims had come to Venice, in-
tending thence to proceed to Palestine; but the
greater part relinquished their intention on hearing
of the capture of Rhodes by the Turks. Not so
Ignatius; nor was he deterred from embarking,
even by a serious illness under which he labored at
the very moment when the ship was about to sail.
Those around him asked the physician if the holy
pilgrim might safely go on board. Yes, replied he,
if he there seeks a grave ! But it turned out other-
wise, and a timely sickness did more for him than
the physician whose prognostics he disappointed,
and he presently regained his usual health.

Adventures not important marked his transit from
Italy to Joppa. During the course of it, and it ap-
pears to have occupied two months, Loyola himself
reports that the Lord ofien appeared to him as here-
tofore, in an indistinct mode. It was on the fourth
day of September, in the year 1623, that he set foot
within the Holy City.

The region round about Jerusalem has of late
been set before English eyes so amply, and with so
much particularity of description, and with such
sumptuousness of illustration, that it has become

HIS FIRST ENTERPRISE. 71

an easy effort of imagiaatioa to convey oneself
thither, and to fancy oneself to belong to the train
of pilgrims, halting in the valley beyond the Kiiryet-
el-Enab, alighting from their beasts, each surren-
dering himself, for some minutes, to a death-like
Btillness of expectation, and then pressing forward,
as does the camel of the desert to a well at hånd,
toward the brow whence first the eye may feast it-
self upon the prospect of the Holy City ! Thus did
Loyola, and at a time when the many and real
perils of a pilgrimage served to add a deep intensity
to enthilsiasm ; thus did he kneel, and thus recol-
lect himself, and rush onward, and thus gayly exult,
when at last that sombre length of wall, wanting
as it is in every recommendation but such as the
pilgrim's soul supplies, stretched itself along the op-
posing height before him !

There can be no doubt that, on every holy, and
on many an unholy spot, Loyola drank brim-fuU
cups of that devout intoxication which is there of-
fered to the lips of pilgrims. And yet, while revel-
ling in these delights, he did not lose sight of his
higher pui-pose ; for he was not the man to forget,
or to be beguiled of, a great intention^ by mere
gratifisations, even of the purest kind. Those
around him might witness his raptures as a pilgrim,
but none knew or suspected that the will and reso-
lution of an apostle were couched within that form
of devout ecstasy. . With an unfeigned delight he
entertained those recollections of the past which
the " holy spots" so vividly recalled ; but then it was
the future — it was his own vocation — that mainly
employed his thoughts. What he mused upon as

72 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

he paced the narrow streets of Jerusalem — as one
of a train of raindless, purposeless pilgrims — was
the restoration, by his means, of the schismatic
Greek communion to the true church, and the con-
version of the millions of Mahomet's foUowers.

Having, during the few days allotted, as its stint,
to each pilgrim group, satiated his devotional appe-
tite, Loyola, while his compauions were preparing
themselves to depart, and were fiUing their pouches
with the dear-bought memorials of their journey —
the wares of the Holy City, was devising means for
separating himself from the band in the muster-
roll of which his name was inscribed, and thus for
protracting indefinitely his stay in Palestine. This
purpose, however, was frustrated ; — shall we ask if
it has been well for the world that, at this point of
his course, his zeal met a rebuff, and that he was
compelled to retrace his steps westward ?

In the hope of effecting his purpose, he first ad-
dressed himself to the superior of the Franciscan
convent, mentioning only a half of his purpose, and
the unimportant half, namely, to abide in the Holy
City. The good man seemed to listen with favor
to his petition ; but said the point must be referred
to the Provincial, who was then at Bethlehem. This
high functionary speedily returned, and we may
easily believe that, in his post, he had had to do often
enough with bold and sturdy devotees — men whose
aspect and tone declared that they were used to yield
themselves to their personal impulses uncontroUed.
The prudént and experienced Provincial discerned,
probably, in Loyola's style and manner, quite
enough of the indications of resolute self-will, to de-

mS FIRST ENTERPRISE. 73

termine him not to pennit his continued sojoiim at
Jerusalem, or anywhere else within his jurisdiction.
He, however, on the contrary, had come before the
Provincial in the confident expectation of a decision
favorable to his wishes. But it was no such thirig :
the dignitary had already made up his mind, as to
the pilgrim's petition ; and although he received and
conversed with him courteously, his refusal was per-
emptory. Not an houPs delay beyond the time when
the cavalcade was to pass out of the Jaffa gate,
could be granted him ! " I have heard," said he,
" of your pious desire to remain in the Holy Land,
and I have carefully considered the case. In trutb,
very many, like yourself, have desired the same
thing, and the experiment has often been tried. Of
those who have staid, many have perished among
the infidels ; and more than a few, having been
made captives, have thrown upon the Franciscans
the burdensome obligation of redeeming them ; no
trifling affair this ! therefore my decision is, that
you prepare yourself to depart with the other pil-
grims to-morrow."

But Loyola would listen to no denial ; his reso-
lution was fixed not less absolutely tban that of the
Provincial, nor could any considerations of personal
safety divert him from it ; — nothing, in short, but a
clear case of obligation to submit to a competent
authority. " Oh, well," said the Provincial, " I have
authority from the apostolic see to send away, or to
retain, whomsoever I think fit, and at my own
pleasure. Nay, this is not all, for I have power to
pronounce excommunication upon any one who
may refuse obedience ; and so in this case have I

4

N

74 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

decided, namely, that it will not be well for you to
remain in the Holy Land !" The Provincial was
proceeding to exhibit the pontificial letters-patent,
granting him the power of excommunication. Lo-
yola said it was needless so to do ; and, seeing the
case stood as it did, he should yield.

Thus ipinded, he returned to his place ; but at
this very moment, and when no time was to be lost,
unless he would incur the utmost risk, a sudden de-
sire seized him to revisit the Mount of Olives be-
fore he departed — seeing that the will of God did
not permit him to stay — and once again to inspect
the vestiges of our Lord's feet upon the rock, whence
he ascended to heaven. Off he set, giving notice
of his intention to no one, and taking with him no
guide — for a pilgrim to do which is in the last de-
gree dangerous, the Turks being wont to despatch,
without remorse, any solitary stragglers who may
fall in their way. The door-keepers of the Church
of the Ascension he bribed to let him pass, by the
gift of his pen-knife. Having there paid his devo-
tions with much comfort, a new wish urged him to
go on to Bethphage. While there it occurred to him
that he had not, with sufficient care, noted the
position of the foot-marks on the rock, so as to be
able to determine toward which quarter of the
heavens our Lord turned his face in ascending. To
gain admittance a second time cost him his scis-
sors?

Meanwhile there was a hue and cry to find the
stray pilgrim, who had not answered to his name
when the muster-roU was read, at the moment of
setting out. An officer of the convent met him oii

HIS FIRST ENTERPRISE. 75

his desceat from the Mount of Olives, and, with
threats and violence, dragged him forward ; he, not
resisting, went on, and, as he went, was solaced by
that divine apparition which had so often before
sustained his faith in moments of fear and suf-
fering.

Thus rebuffed, Loyola turned his back upon the
Holy Land — ^upon the schismatic Greek communion
— not by him to be reconciled to the true church,
and upon several hundred millions of the foUowers
of Mahomet — not by him to be converted ! He
reached Venice early in the year 1524, but not with-
out miraculous escapes. A difficult task it is to cuU
from the heap, those genuine anecdotes which
might serve to throw light upon Loyola's personal
character, and to reject those copious decorations
which not merely overload the story, but convey
a false impression of the man. The picture which
shoAvs the holy pilgrim ^afely setting foot again
upon the shores of Italy, exhibits, in each of its
corners a shipwreck, and " all on board, crew and
passengers, perishing !" The commander of one
of these lost barks had refused to take Loyola on
board, unprovided, as he was, with money to pay
the passage. "But he is a holy man," said his
companions. " If as holy as St. James, he my get
across the sea in the same manner as he."

The saint's equipments at this time weré as bare
as his purse was light ; and we are told that the
winter was unusually rigorous. An open corslet,
slashed in the sleeves, a scanty cloak, breeches
reaching only to the knees, and his legs quite bare.
Happily his vow to visit the Holy Land barefoot,

76 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

did not include any conditions as to his return — a
return not having come^within his purpose — and
therefore it was with a clea^ conscience that, when
compelled to return, he could allow himself the
luxury of shoes. The voyage from Cyprus had
consumed more than two months.

At Venice he was again kindly entertained by
the Spaniard who had received him under his roof
before his departure for Palestine : and by the same
friend he was re-clad, and supphed with money for
his homeward journey. Acquiescing, as he did, in
the divine will^ so clearly indicated, which forbad
his attempting any good work in the East, he now
revolved his future course, and anxiously considered
to what field of labor he should direct himself His
decision shows us something of the man we are in
quest of He determin ed to return to Barcelona,
and there to apply to those studies which would
qualify him the better for taking the care of souls.
He left Venice, therefore, on his way to Genoa. At
Ferrara, having bestowed an alms upon a mendi-
cant, he was soon surrounded by a swarm, among
whom he distributed the entire contents of his
purse, and thus, with his journey in prospect, re-
duced himself instantly to the necessity of begging
his daily bread ! Curious illustration of the alter-
nate sway of reason, and of non-reason, within a
vigorous mind ! Might not the gold pieces he had
been furnished with have been well employed in
furtherance of the very intention of his return to
Barcelona ? If we might here pause a moment to
find fault with the religions system under which
Loyola had been trained, it must be on the ground,

HIS FIRST ENTERPRISE. 77

not so much of its feeding the vulgar with childkh
illusions, as of its shedding absurdity — which it
has always done — into the best constructed minds,
so that moral grandeur and puerility, sublimity and
nonsense, walk on either hånd of each of the
church's heroes.

On his onward way Loyola passed altemately
the lines of the hostile armies of France and of the
Empire. By his countrymen in arms, whom he
encountered, he was urged to betake himself to a
safer line of road ; but he rejected their advice, for
it was plainly reasonable, and persisted in continu-
ing a route whereon ill-treatment or death was sure
to meet him ; and so it presently happened ; for he
was apprehended as a spy, was grievously mal-
treated, and hardly suifered to proceed. The cir-
cumstances, if we may suppose them to be truly re-
ported, are characteristic : —

After having been strictly searched by the guard,
on the supposition of his being the bearer of letters
to the enemy, he was carried before the officer in
command of a fortifiied place ; and is it not a disci-
ple of George Fox whom we there find undergoing
examination before a justice of the peace ? It had
been, we are told, the custom of the holy pilgrim,
with whomsoever he might hold converse, and
whatever might be their degree, to drop all desig-
nations of rank, of office, or of honor, as reputed
among men, and to content himself with the simple
pronoun, "Ye." The conscience of our Ignatius
allows him to use, if not a " My lord," an adulatory
plural in place of a singular : — he can say Vos, for
Tu ! He piously believed that he thus oonformed

78 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

himself to the style of " Christ, and the Apostles."
But how so, we might well ask, when we find that
apostle who had most to do with the world, and
who understood its requirements best, and who, at
the same time, was inferior to none of the twelve in
knowing " the mind of Christ," still used on all oc-
casions, and even when the honoraiy designation
sounded like a satire upon the person, every cus-
tomary appellative of courtesy ?

But our Ignatius is waiting to be led before the
prefect. We have mentioned what his manner of
speech had hitherto been. On his way from the
guard-house to the hall, the thought had presented
itsdf — ^not suggested, we are told, by any movement
of fear — that, in this instance, he would hold apos-
tolic simplicity in abeyance, and ad dress the person
in authority by his title of ofiice. This suggestion,
however, he quickly perceived to be a temptation,
and, as such, he dismissed it. " No," said he, to
himself, " I will neither call him *my lord,' nor bend
the knee in his presence, nor put off my honnet."

After some delay he is brought forward. Not a
movement or gesture of civility does he vouchsafe.
A few brief words, with a sufficiently long interval
between each clause, is all the communication he
deigns to make. The prefect, who, no doubt, had
business enough upon his hånds that morning, takes
him for a fool, or a madman. " Give him," says
he to the guard, " what belongs to him (his gar-
ments, of which he had been stripped), and send
him off." The prefect was quite wrong in taking
Loyola for either fool or madman, in the ordinary
sense of the terms; for his absurdity sprang from a

HIS FIRST ENTERPRISE. 79

folly and from an insanity of that kind into which
no actual fool or madman ever falls.

We need not follow the track of unimportant
and not signiåcant incidents that attended his on*
ward journey ; and may well omit, also, the highly
decorated adventures introduced by some of the
biographers. He reaches Genoa; — ^by the good
Offices of a countryman; he is there put on board
a Vessel sailing for Barcelona, and which narrowly
escapes capture by the noted Andrea Doria, and
he safely sets foot again upon Spanish ground.

CHAPTER IV.

LOYOLA, IN PREPARATION FOR THE WORK TO
WHICH HE DEVOTES HIMSELP, GOES TO SCHOOL
AT BARCELONA, AND ELSEWHERE.

At Barcelona, and during his former sojouin
there, Loyola had gained the good-will of a devout
lady, named Isabel Rosella, to whom now, on his
return, hecommunicated his design of going through
a course of elementary instruction, the better to fit
him for the work to which he wished to devote him-
self — namely, the care of souls. This lady and
patron, along with a schoolmaster of the city,
named Ardebal, highly approved his plan, and the
latter benevolently undertook to direct his studies
without fee ; while the former pledged herself to
supply the means of his support. Thus confirmed
in his purpose, and thus assisted, he took his Latin
giammar in band.

His first impulse had been (so it is affirmed) to
introduce himself into some religious house, where
discipline was at the lowest ebb, and where disor-
ders were flagrant ; and when he had thus lodged
himself at the very centre of corruption, to apply
himself to the task of bringing back the community
to virtue, to piety, and to the rule of its founder.
But after much prayer, with fasting, he believed
himself to be divinely moved to reject a design ap-

fflS ELEMENTARY STUDIES. 81

pareDtly so commendable ; and the alleged ground
of this decision should be noted. He would not
shut himself up within the narrow precincts of any
one community ; he would not restrict the field of
those energies which were struggling in his bosom,
and for the exercise of which the world was not too
wide a sphere.

Resolutely, therefore, he now addressed himself
to his task ; and how arduous and how repulsive
must have been the daily effort of acquiring the
very rudiments of leaming to a man trained as he
had been, and now past his thirtieth year ! And
yet this mere difficulty of learning was not the only
trial of constancy which he had to encounter, for so
fixed had the devotional habits of his mind now be-
come, and with such impetus and velocity did his
thoughts rush forward in the channei of the pious
afiections, that, as often as, in the declehsion of
nouns, or the conj ugation of verbs, the words were
such as to suggest ideas of religion, his whole soul
was on the wing ; — ^grammar — teacher — all was
forgotten, and wbatever he might already have
learned was clean erased from his memory : every-
thing was to be commenced afresh ! Of this new
perplexity the tempter took advantage, using the
lure of things sacred for the very purpose of divert-
ing Ignatius from his studies, and sometimes even
giving him sudden insights of the mysteries of faith !
He however discerned this artifice, learned how to
bafBe the adversary on his own ground, and thus
acquired a species of skill of which he afterwards
often availed himself, to the great benefit of the
many souls that came under his care.

4*

82 IGUATIUS LOYOLA.

Near to the school which he attended there was
a church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, where,
after having duly poured førth his petitions to God
and the Virgin, he opened all his mind atid purpose
. to his friend and master Ardebal ; he professed anew
and more explicitly his determination to persist in
his studies thrgugh two years, or longer if needful,
and to yield himself, without distinction, to every
task, and to submit to every chastisement which,
according to the usage of the school, would be in-
flicted upon boys not making more progress than
himself. This profession, made in all sincerity by
Loyola, was accepted, and, it is afiirmed, was acted
upon by his master ; and it has been thought an
edifying device to place before the world, some touch-
ing representations of the scene, when the great
founder submissively, and with tears, was yielding
his adult person to a smart infliction, administered
by his faithfully wrathful pedagogue! "Saint
Ignatius, whipped at school !"

About this time, finding his constitutional habit
iraproved, he entered anew upon some practices of
mortification which he had found it prudent or ne-
cessary to relinquish. For instance, the wearing
of shoes had become indispensable to him on ac-
count of his susceptibility to damps and chilis.
Now, however, a harsher treatment of the body was
practicable ; he therefore bored a hole in the sole
of each shoe, which every day he enlarged a lit tie,
until at length everything but the upper leathers.
was gone. How can we enough admire this ming-
ling of mortification and of prudence ! To have
waited the operation of wear-and-tear would have

HIS ELEAfENTARY STUDIES 83

been too tardy a course ; and to have removed the
soles at once, too hazardous : moreover, by retaui-
ing the uppe^^ leather, which was but a sorry com-
fort to the flesb, he avoided the ostentatiou of going
barefoot : none perhaps took notice of his want of
soles, unless it were those who might too curiously
observe him as he knelt at church.

At this time it had been recommended to Ig-
natius, as the best means of acquiring an elegant
Latin style, carefully to peruse Erasmus's " Chris-
tian Soldier's Manual." He took it up, therefore,
for this purpose, but had not advanced far before he
found that it chilled the fervor of his soul ; and on
this account he did not hesitate to cast it from him.
Never again would he look into this book himself,
and years afterwards, when General of his order, he
strictly forbade the reading of any of the works of
that writer within the Society. Not that he im-
puted to his pages the poison of heresy ; but he ap-
prehended that the blandishments of the style — the
sarcasian vein, and the flowing eloquence — would
beguile souls from their simplicity. It was quite
otherwise with the " De Imitatione" of Thomas å
Kempis, which he read and studied with the live-
liest pleasure, and the highest advantage. In faet,
his admirers have said of him that he hunself be-
came a perfect exempliåcation, or living exhibition,
of the golden precepts of that unequalled book.

At length, and having made some little progress
in the acquisition of the Latin language, he bid
adieu to his kind preceptor Ardebal, and to his friend
and patroness Isabel Rosella; and, with the view of
prosecuting the higher branches of study to more

84 lONATIUS LOYOLA.

adrantage than he could at Barcelona, -he resolved
to proceed to the university of Alcala,* where he
arrived in the year 1526.

Entering the common hall with some who had
joined themselves to him, and proposing to sustain
himself by the casual alms of the charitable, he ap-
plied himself, with great but indiscriminate ardor,
to everything at once, and thiis rather burdened and
perplexed his faculties, than made solid progress in
leaming. Moreover his strength was often ex-
hansted, and his time consumed, in the perpetual
labor of providing, by mendication, not merely for
his own wants, but for those of his companions in
study and in poverty, and who had too easily
leamed to depend upon his greater success and
assiduity in coUecting alms. Nor was this the only
hindrance which came in the way of his advance-
ment, for his zeal for the recovery of wandering
souls to the worship and service of God could not
be repressed ; — in college halls, in the streets and
lånes of the city, and wherever he found any, of
whatever class or age, who would listen to him, he
ceased not to hold discourse with them, as hereto-
fore at Manresa, and not without remarkable success.
This course, however, attracted too much notoriety,
and drew upon him various sinister suspicions ; nor
was this surprising at a time when, throughout
Spain, or elsewhere, the venom of "German heresy"
was carried about by the bold and industrious
"agents of Satan." Was it not probable, said some,
that this restless man — everjrwhere preaching in the
streets, and whispering in the ears of the peoph

* Complutum, foonded by Ximenes.

HIS ELSMERTARY STUDIES. 85

was himself a Lutheran, or a sorcerer, or a some-
thmg not less pestiferous? The hearts of men, ii
was manifest, were dangerously swayed by the dis-
courses of this Ignatius. A report of what was
going on at length reached the holy office at Toledo,
and the holy inquisitors hastened to Alcala, where,
after having informed themselves, in their accus-
tomed modes, of the whole matter, they felt satis-
fied that there was no real cause of alarm ; and in
taking their departure they commended Ignatius
and his companions to the vigilant regards of the
vicar-archbishop, who, after a renewed inquiry, and
a close conversation with him, was content with in-
sisting only on this precautionary measure, namely,
that Loyola and his companions, instead of habiting
themselves in precisely the same mode — in cloaks
of imdyed wool — should assume different colors,
lest the uniformity of their attire should suggest the
idea of their being the originators of a sect, or of
their attempting, without authority, to found an
order. Loyola, always forward "to obey magis-
trates" (when they did not attempt to thwart his
fixed purposes) yielded at once to this reasonable
injunction.

Newsuspicions were, however, perpetually spring-
ing up, and bringing him into jeopardy. His desti-
tute cottdition at Alcala had moved the pity of
some who obtained for him a lodgment within the
precincts of an hospital. Here he had passed four
months, when one morning a sergeant met him at
the door, and led him away to jail — no cause as-
signed. Here he remained some while, free access
to him being allowed ; and during this time he ad-

86 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

ministered counsel, in his usual mode, to all who
sought it, and to many he deliver ed snitable por-
tions of the "Spiritual Exercises." Advocates
offered him their services to procure his liberation ;
but he chose rather to wait passively the course of
things. " He for love of whom I am come hither,
will lead me hence when it shall please Him :" —
such was his reply to a noble lady who would fain
have used her influence on his beH^lf.

At length the vicar-general of Alcala, John Rod-
riquez Figueroa, under whose eye the officers of
the Inquisition had left Loyola, visited and ques-
tioned him. " Do you know anything of two ladies,
mother and daughter, both widows, and the younger
very handsome ?" — " Yes, truly." " Know you any-
thing of their departure from Alcala? Did you
know of their intention to leave their homes T^ —
" Solemnly, and by my vow I knew it not." " But
it is on account of these ladies that you have been
thrown into prison." Loyola, in faet, had endeav-
ored to repress the irregular zeal of these ladies,
and it seems that they had set out on a wild errand,
contrary to his advice, or at least without his im-
mediate cognizance.

" Women," we are told, " carry everything to ex-
tremes, and the ladies of Spain especially." Be
this as it may, it appears that this mother and
daughter had so profited by Loyola's instructions,
that their religions zeal could brook no restraints —
could listen to no admonitions of prudence, not
even from the Ups of their admired teacher ! Al-
ready they had performed one pilgrimage on foot ;
and now they had resolved to set out in the same

HIS ELEMENTARY STUDIES. 87

manner, and to beg their bread from town to town
throughout Spain, visiting every hospital, and min-
istering to the sick in each. In vain did Loyola,
who knew well what must be the lisks of such an
enterprise to such persons, remind them that there
were sick poor enough in Alcala to employ all their
time, This was nothing ; — there would have been
no romance in doing good so near at home. At
first, indeed, they yielded obedience to their teacher,
or were awed by that tone of authority which be-
longed to the embryo General of the Society of
Jesus. But at length the charms of this ramble of
mercy prevailed over all contrary motives, and they
absconded. The ecclesiastic who was their guard-
ian, knowing who it was that had at the first turned
the heads of his wards, applied to the vicar-general,
and obtained Loyola's arrest.

Six weeks had elapsed since his commitment to
prison, when the ladies-enant returned to their
home, and, as their testimony accorded with Loyo-
la's affirmations, he was set at liberty : yet subject to
a condition with which he could not comply —
namely, that he should abstain from all endeavors
to instruct others, until he should himself have be-
come qualified to do so with good effect, by com-
pleting his four years of study. How could he con-
sent to postpone so long all endeavors to reclaim
souls, and on the sole ground of his unfinished edu-
cation ? He left the prison in porplexity, resolving
to depart from Alcala, and to submit himself to the
advice (or at least to cLsk the advice) of some dig-
nitary more indulgent than the vicar-general Figu-
eroa.

88 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

"We should not," said this ecclesiastic, "have
made so much of what you do, if your discourses
with the people had savored rather less of novelty."
" Novelty !" exclaimed Ignatius, gravely, " I did not
understand that for Christians to speak one to an-
other, concerning Jesus Christ, was a new thing."

Don Alphonso de Fonseca, archbishop of Toledo,
received Loyola courteously, and finding that he
wished to proceed to Salamanca, favored this inten-
tion, gave him introductions, and replenished his
purse with four gold pieces. He therefore set for-
ward, with his companions, on his way thither. Yet
neither at this place did repose await him. The
same course of conduct — the same boldness and
assiduity in addressing persons of every rank, and
exhorting thexti to repentance and piety, drew upon
him again the eyes of the profane and the envious,
and rendered him the object of curiosity throughout
the city. A Strange sight indeed it was to see a
band of laymen, in the garb of poor students of
Alcala— for thus they had been compelled to attire
themselves by their friends there — discharging,
openly and boldly, a sort of apostolic and pastoral
function, and drawing even priests within their in-
fluence ! Admired, foUowed, suspected, inveighed
against, this band of itinerants became the subject
of secret and anxious eonsultations within ecclesi-
astical precincts. The Dominicans especially, who
had a noted establishment at Salamanca — ^the mon-
astery of St. Stephen — thought themselves called
upon, although without any authority, to search
this novelty to its rudiments. Ignatius, unapprized
of this intention, had, in all simplicity, chosen a con-

mS ELEMENTARY STUDIES. 89

fessor from this very house. This circumstance
having been made known to the principals, Ignatius
was perfidiously invited to dine at the convent the
next Sunday, with his friend CaUstus. Advertised
that he was likely to undergo a rigorous examina-
tion, he nevertheless fearlessly kept the appoirit-
ment, and went, he and his companion. Dinner
ended, the vicar — in the absence of the prior — court-
eously leads both his guests, with the confessor and
another brother, to a cell, apart. Each takes his
seat, and a coUoquy passes within*the walls of this
cell which is curiously analogous to those that, so
often since, have had place in Protestant countries,
when lay street-preachers have been called before
" the bench." If in this instance we may rely upon
our reporters, the substance of the interrogations,
and of the answers, was as foUows : —

The vicar, looking at Ignatius with a bland smile,
expressed the pleasure he felt in thinking of the
course of those who, after the manner of the Apos-
tles, went about among the people, inciting them
to the worship of God, and the practice of piety ;
nevertheless he earnestly wished to know with what
preparation of learning they had attempted so seri-
ous a task. Ignatius ingenuously acknowledged
the simple faet — that he and his companions were
veiy slenderly furnished in this way. " How is it,
then," said the vicar, " that you, destitute as you
are of learning, should go about, holding discourse
with the people upon things divine ?" " Nay," re-
pHed Ignatius, " we do not pr each ; but only, as
occasion offers, and on the ground of equality with
those. who are willing to listen to us, and in coUo-

90 IGNATIUS LOYOLA

quial style, we speak of the beauty of virtue, and
of the deformity of vice, and exhort men to hate the
one, and to love the other." " But apart from a due
amount of human learning, which must be either
acquired in the ordinary mode, from tutors and from
hooks, or must he divinely conveyed to the mind by
the Holy Spirit — apart from this preparation, no
man can properly handle subjects of this sort ; anc^
yet you, as you openly acknowledge, have not given
yourselves, with any sufficient assiduity, either to
books or to teaohers ; it foUows, then, necessarily,
that this species of learning must have been imme-
diately conveyed to you by the Holy Spirit. Give
us, therefore, if you please, some information on this
point."

Ignatius, perceiving the intention of the vicar to
hold him to a dilemma, hesitated awhile ; but the
vicar persisting in pressiag for a reply to a question
so plain, he at length openly said that he had no-
thing further to state, unless it were to those who
might be duly authorized so to interrogate him.
" Oh ! is it come to that ?" exclaimed the vicar, " is
it so that, at a tune when new sects of impostors
are every day making their appearance, and are
leading multitudes astray, and when the errors of
Erasmus and others are spreading on every side,
that you, when questioned concerning your doo-
trine, equivocate and evade a direct reply ? But I
will see to it that you shall give us an answer."
Three day s they were detained within the walls
of the monastery, yet not unkindly treated by the
brethren, with whom they held free intercourse,

HIS ELEMENTARY STUDIES. 91

and amoag whom a division took place in their fa-
vor.

On the fourth day they were visited by the notary,
who led them away, and lodged them, not in a dun-
geon, under ground, but in a sort of out-house,
where they fared even worse: it was a decayed
structure, with heaps of rubbish, the smells from
^yhich were pestilential. The two friends were
fastened, leg to leg, with an iron chain — nor was it
possible for them to take rest. They spent the
night in singing psalms.

But the imprisonment of Ignatius and his com-
panion quickly became noised through the city, and
the next day not a few of the most considerable
persons of Salamanca visited them, bringing for
their relief coverlets, mattresses, and provisions.
The severity of their treatment, too, was somewhat
relaxed ; and as at Alcala, so now at Salamanca,
Ignatius was resorted lo by multitudes, to whom,
with wonderful calmness, he discoursed on such
topics as the contempt of things earthly, the last
judgment, and the eternal rewards and punishments
that were to follow. "Is not this imprisonment
grievous to you ?" said a compassionate visitant —
Francis Mendoza, " and thesechains, too ?" " There
are not in Salamanca," replied Ignatius, " stocks or
handcufTs so many as that I would not gladly en-
dure them all, and more, for Christ's sake."

At length he and his companion underwent strict,
varied, and separate examinations, by the ecclesias-
tical authorities of Salamanca. One of them had
heard of the Book of Spiritual Exercises, and asked
that it should be produced : it was at once surren-

92 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

dered and the names of his other associates, and the
piaces of their abode, were given in. These were
arrested, and confined separately. The book was
submitted to the examination of three doctors in
theology. At this point of time an incident oc-
curred (so say our authorities, but not the most
trustworthy of them) which tended greatly to set
the characters of Loyola and his comrades in an
advantageous Ught. By some strange negligence
of the keepers, all the prisoners save these, breaking
from their confinements, effected theif escape. He
and his friend — although they were free to depart
with the others — ^were found in their cells the fol-
lowing morning, scorning to elude the authorities.
Much admiration, and a more lenient treatment,
were the consequence of this event. In the end,
the result of often-repeated interrogations, and of a
careful perusal of the Exercises, was a feeling of
amazement on the part of the examiners, and which
was increased vastly when, certain questions among
the most abstruse and perplexing in theology being
propounded to Ignatius, hé answered each with
admi rable address ; and moreover solved a knotty
point in the canon law precisely in accordance with
the decision of the doctors, of which he had known
nothing.

At length, and after more than three weeks' im-
prisonment, Ignatius and his friends are brought
into court to hear their sentence. This was, that
they were declared innocent of heretical pravity,
- and that they should be left. at liberty to instruct
the common people, as before ; but nevertheless
that they should not presume, until after four years'

HIS ELEMENTARY STUDIES. 93

attendance upon the tfaeological class, to advance
any opinion upon that most diiiicult of all questions
which serves to distinguish between mortal and
venial offences — questions to which an approach
seemed to be made in a certain part of the Spiritual
Exercises. This sentence, in the opinion of the
judges, was nothing less than an honorable ac-
quittal. Ignatius, however, sustained as he was
by his firm consciousness of being altogether in the
right, vehemently resented the restraint thus laid
upon him, and complained that, after by these
doctors and rulers he had been pronounced free, in
speech and writing, from all taint and suspicion of
false doctrine, silence should nevertheless be en-
joined him upon a point so prominent and so essen-
tial ; and that thus his labors, for the conversion
and instruction of men, should be in a manner pro-
hibited.

Already he had harbored a design which this re-
strictive sentence induced him at once to adopt ;
and now finding that, throughout Spain, obstacles
of this same kind were Ukely to be thrown in the
way of his evangelic labors, he determincd to repair
to the University of Paris, there to complete his
academic course, or rather to commence it, for as
yet he had made but little progress. In addition
to the high celebrity of that seat of learning at this
time, a motive with Loyola for going thither was,
the consideration that his ignorance of the language
of the country would necessarily exempt him from
those labors which heretofore had so much inter-
fered with his studies. Nor did he doubt that at
Paris — ^the centre of the intellectual energies of

94 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

Christendom — he should form acquaintance with
some whom he might induce to assist him in giving
effect to the institute he had devised.

The companioas whom Ignatius had gathered
aroimd him in Spain — perhaps the risks they had
so lately incurred had cooled their zeal — were httle
incHned to accompany him on a journey so long
and 80 perilous as that which he now proposed for
himself By consent of all he was to go forward
alone, and to summon them to follow him if he
should find all things favoring such a course : or,
if not, they were to await severally some future
day when they might re-assemble under happier
auspices.

Many, but fruitless, were the entreaties of Lo-
yola's friends — and some of them persons of rank —
not to abandon them. Disregarding all, he starts
oa his way to Barcelona, on foot, and driving be-
fore him an ass, furnished with panniers, which
contained his college hooks. Among his warm
friends at Barcelona his constancy eilcountered a
new and more severe trial, for they, with the most
urgent entreaties, sustained by valid reasons, sought
to turn him from a purpose so fraught with perils
in the execution. War raging at that time be-
tween Spain and France, the border provinces, on
both sides, swarmed with freebooters of the most
ferocious sort, by whose hånds many had already
fallen. These representations, just as they were,
could not be listened to by Ignatius ; neveriheless
it had not been quite in vain that he had travefsed
lands and séas as far as to the Holy City and back,
with a purse emptied by himself at starting. His

HIS ELEMENTARY STUDIES. 95

native sense had now taught him to judge bettcr
between the claims of faith and of reason ; and he
accepted from his friends as well raoney, as letters
of credit, to an extent sufficient both to defray the
expenses of his journey, and to provide hira with
things indispensible when he should reach Paris.
Here, then, is the founder of the Society a step
further advanced in that course of individual de-
velopment which was at length to bring the intel-
lectual faculty into a commanding position, as re-
lated to his moral and religions impulses. Not only
has he, after making fuU trial of the special diffi-
culties which a man of his years must encounter
in such a course, resolved anew to possess himself
of the aids of human leaming, but, abandoning the
crazy purpose of absolute poverty and way-side
begging, he now sets out with a purse reasonably
furnished in his girdle ; and beyond this, and in
further abjuration of the principle of throwing away
ordinary means of support in order to live by mir-
aclej^he carries letters, such as the men of this world
would furnish themselves with, in similar circum-
stances ! And see him urging the sluggish paces
of his beast, the back of which is loaded with
human leaming ! Loyola's enthusiasm is pushed
off, inch by inch, from the place of power within
his mind.

He set out in the depth of a severe winter alone,
on foot, and without a guide. It was in the first
days of the year 1528 that he left Barcelona, and
he reached Paris in the beginning of February.
Finding that his former studies had been well-nigh
fruitless, he now resolved to devote himself, without

96 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

distraction, to the one object he had in view. He
had at length learned, and he ingenuously acknowl-
edged the faet, that the human mind — certainlyhis
own, could not, with advantage, be distracted by
divers and incompatible purposes.

He entered himself a scholar at Montague Col-
lege ; and although of adult years, yet he placed
himself among boys, with them to acquire — as if
his past acquirements were to be accounted as of
no value — ^the very rudiments of learning. He even
diminished those exercises of piety and of personal
discipline in which heretofore he had consumed a
large portion of his time ; holding nevertheless to
his usage of hearing mass daily, of communicatiug
once a week, and of goihg through with his own
method of spiritual exercise — taking the occasion,
twice every day, to compare himself, as to his re-
ligions condition and conduct — day with day — week
with week — month with month ; noting faithfuUy
every indi(^tion either of progress or of decline. Al-
though he did not absolutely abstain from his ac-
customed labors for the spiritual good of others, he
brought all such occupations within very narrow
limits.

Loyola had lodged the money he brought with
him in the hånds of a faithless Spaniard, the sharer
of his lodgings, from whom, when he needed it, he
could obtain nothing. He was thus again suddenly
reduced to the cruel necessity of subsisting, from
day to day, upon casual alms — a mode of living
which he had found to be whoUy incompatible
with his advancement in learning. At length,
however, he obtained admission into the hospital

HIS ELEMENTARY STUDIES. 97

of St. James ; but this was at a distance from col-
lege, and moreover the regulations of the hospital
and of the university were incompatible, inasmuch
as, from the former, no egress was permitted before
sunrise, and no admittance after sunset; but at
college the classes were opened before day-break,
and were not closed until after sunset. Much
time, therefore, was lost to him from the hours of
every day. After resorting to various expedients
with the hope of remedying these inconveniences,
he at length, and on the suggestion of his Spanish
friends, repaired several times during the recesses
to Belgium, and afterwards to England, where he
found wealthy Spanish merchants, whose annual
liberality enabled him to complete the period of his
college course without distraction.

He had now completed his humanity course, and
also in the next three years he had studied philoso-
phy with great credit, in which he took his degree.
He attended, moreover, a course of theology with
the Dominicans, and was reported to have become
thoroughly qualified to hold discourse, and to in-
struct others in the mysteries of the faith. The
habit of his mind, and its tendency toward abso-
lutism, is well indicated by what he tells us was the
method he employed for the better securing, on his
own part, an instantaneous and unquestioning com-
pliance with the commands of his college preceptor,
or with the instructions conveyed to him by others
in subordinate positions. The head master he
brought himself to think of as Christ; while to
others, severally, he assigned the names of the
Apostles — ^mentally calling one Peter, another John,

5

98 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

another Paul. Thus he broke down within him-
eelf the principleof self-wiU, by a quaintly imagined
fiction, which lent the force and sanction of Heaven
to every syllable that might be uttered either by his
instructors or his companions.

His scholastic course being thus far colfcluded,
Loyoia began to resume his former practices of pro-
miscuous teaching and exhortation, as opportunity
presented itself. These labors, carried on in that
earnest manner which was his characteristic, and
with that success which such eamestness always
insures, quickly drew attention, and as soon excited
active jealousies. The instance of three young
Spaniards whom he had induced to distribute all
their means of subsistence among the poor, and
then to live by alms, as he himself did, made their
friends his determined enemies, and in consequence
he was reported to the inquisitor — Matthew Ori,
who, as a delegate of the holy oflSce, exercised his
fimetions in France, by the leave or connivance of
the government. This sort of extension of the
powers of the Inquisition beyond the limits of the
countries wherein its existence was legally recog-
nized, had obtained in France, although at times
ithadbeen in abeyance, or had been withdrawn, in
deference to the wishes of the monarch, or to the
known feeling of the Gallican church. Before this
functionary Loyoia was cited to appear.

Meantime it had happened that the Spaniard who
had absconded with the funds entrusted to him,
wrote from Rouen, declaring himself to be lying ill,
and in the most extreme destitution. Loyoia did not
hesitate a moment in setting out to administer re-

HIS ELEMENTARY STUDIES. 99

lief to his faithless country man. We are assured
that he set out to do so without taking food, and
barefoot also ; hoping, as it seems, by this supereroga-
tory severity, to obtain grace from Heaven for the
offending object of his journey, Thus fasting, and
barefoot, and in' alternations of s{Hritual depression
and exultation, he reached Rouen, and there having
begged alms in behalf of his destitute comrade,
sent him forward by ship to Spain. On his return
to Paris he waited upon the inquisitor ; but was
presently discharged. Loyola's turn of mind being
altogether practical and ethical, not theoretic, or
logicai, or inteliectual, and therefore not inclining
him, in any degree, to call in question the dogmas
of the church, or to excite inquiry concerning them
in the minds of others, he found it easy to satisfy
the ecclesiastical authorities before which he was so
often cited, as to his unqualified and unquestioning
adherence to the faith and teaching of the church
on all those points which had then come to be dis-
tinctive of orthodoxy and of heresy. Loyola believed
with the church — point for point, and without a
scruple, or a shadow of dissent. '

It was not, however, so easy for him to avoid ex-
citing the jealousies of the college authorities by the
extraordinary influence which he had acquired over
the minds of young persons. It would be a hope-
less task, with no evidence before us but such as
Loyola's biographers think fit to ifurnish, to attempt
to balance the account between him and his adver-
saries on this ground, or to decide how far the in-
discretions of his zeal might have given them fair
occasion against him. It is not easy even to deter-

100 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

mine whether the narratives of these contests, and
of the saint's sufierings, escapes, and triumphs, are
at all authentic. Some of these stories carry upon
them a very suspicious aspect ; and we should be
inclined to consider those of them which Gonsalvo
passes over in silence, or to which he makes only a
passing allusion, as, at the hest, apocryphal. Lo-
yola himself, we may safely conclude, either knew
nothing of such incidents, or he thought that they
formed no edifying portion of his personal history ;
and if so, we ought to regard him as a better judge
than his overweening friends could be, of what was
fitting to be told of him.

Of this sort is the story of his having been ad-
judged to receive in the college hall a public and
infamous chastisement, as a corrupter of youth —
of his willingness to undergo this undeserved pun-
ishment, regarding it merely as a means of pro-
moting his individual advancement in Christian
mortification — of his scruple, on the ground of the
ill-influence it might have on the minds of those for
whose spiritual welfare he was concerned — of his
ingenuous statement of their " case of conscience"
to his superior, and of his consequent triumph and
public recognition as "a saint."

Among those youths who had frequented his
society, and submitted themselves to his direction,
several had, after a while, turned aside, addicting
themselves to courses of worldly ambition or of
pleasure ; and of these, several instances are cited,
showing how the apostates were foUowed by the
anger of Heaven till they miserably perished. But
Loyola had now learned more caution in the choice

»

HIS ELEMENTARY STUDIES. 101

of friends; and h.e was one to turn to the best

pracjLical account every instance of disappointment.

Having completed his course of study, and believ-

ing himself called of God to attempt great things,

he looked around in seatch of tbose who should
be his companions and coadj utors ; and his choice

seems to have been in each instance fortunate.

CHAPTER V.

LOYOLA's COLLEAGUES, and THE BIRTH OP THE

SOCIETY.

LoYOLA had, as we have said, given evidence of
the strength of his will in carrying forward, through
a period of six years, the plan he had formed for
his personal improvement ; and the necessities he
had submitted to during these years of study, severe
as they were, had probably tried his constancy not
neårly so much as did the repugnance of his own
mind to occupations th at were purely intellectual.
A conquest of the animai nature is what many have
been equal to ; but to contravene the mental bias,
and to Control the tastes, is a victory which very few
ever achieve. In this instance it appeared that the
man who was born to govern others, established his
title to do so by first showing that he could abso-
lutely govern himself, and that he could do so on
ground the most difficult.

This faculty of governing others, and this fasci-
nation, which gave him the ascendency over minds
much superior in intelligence and ih accomplish-
ments to his own, undoubtedly belonged to him in
an eminent degree. It is certain that he knew how
to draw around himself persons of rank and educa-
tion, as well as the vulgar. There was a charm in
his personal appearance and demeanor ; there was

HIS EARLY COMPANIONS. 103

an animation and a fire, subdued by humility and
suavity ; and, more than all, there was an undevi-
ating intensity of movement, directed toward a high-
raised object, which drew all sensitive minds into
his wake. Perhaps the secret of that influence
which is acquired here and there by a gifted mind
over multitudes, results chiefly from the very power
of a steady and rapid movement to impart move-
ment to others.

In the Company of persons of rank (we are told)
Loyola had an insinuating manner, which won and
which secured to him their favor and friendship.
His equals he led forward in his own track, by a
graceful facility, and an avoidance of all assumption
of superiority ; while the ignorant and the needy he
commanded by a native air of authority, by his un-
wearied laboi*s for their good,by his patience towards
them in their perversities, and by a species of be-
nevolent dissimulation, of which he was master, and
which he could practise whenever necessary. How
far this skill in the management of human nature
approached the limits of guilefulness, or how far it
outstepped the boundaries which a high integrity
and a Christian simplicity must observe, cannot be
known.

Multitudes, we are assured, had Loyola converted
from the path of sin ; and more than a few from the
paths of heresy. At the time of which we are
speaking " the plague of Lutheranism" was rapidly
spreading on all sides ; but, by timely admonition,
and suitable remonstrances, he had induced many
of the infected to present themselves before the in-
quisitorial tribunals, and to reconcile themselves to

104 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

the Catbolic Church. His success in these labors
had of late been much promoted by the aid he re-
ceived from several accomplished and devoted young
men, whom he had attached to himself, and who
were willing to aet under his direction, and to yield
submission to him as their spiritual chief. From
the moment when we find Loyola thus surrounded
by disciples and coadj utors, while we must do him
so much the more honor, as being the master mind
among minds of no common order, it becomes diffi-
cult or quite impracticable thenceforward to assign
him his individual share in the united labors of the
Company. Great reason is there to believe, that to
the superior intelligence of two or three of the dis-
tinguish^d men iiÆose names are henceforward to
be associated with his own, he was indebted for the
more profound provisions of that code which has
given permanence and efficiency to the order of
Jesuits. From this time onward, therefore, we are
contemplating the concerted movement of a cluster
of minds, and can claim for Loyola only in particu-
lar instances, what imdoubtedly belongs to him.

The first on the list of the founders of Jesuitism,
is Peter Faber, a Savoyard. He was of humble
origin, but had acquired the rudiments at least of
leaming in early life. It was his thirst for knowl-
edge that had brought him where Loyola made that
acquaintance with him, which ripened quickly into
an intimate friendship. This young man, in faet,
placed himself in the hånds of " his Ignatius" as a
skilful and experienced physician of souls. Readily
he consented to pass through the discipline of the
Spiritual Exercises, such as then it was. In truth,

mS EARLY COHPANIONS. 105

it ajqpears that Loyola, from the fiist, exacted this
aet of compliance from each of his associates. Fa-
ber's case was one of many in dealing with which
his friend seems to have exercised as much discretioa
as might consist with his adherence to a wrong
principle — the great practical error of his church.
In boyhood — ^perhaps it might have been in child-
hood, and during a season of religions fervor, such
as frequently marks the first developments of the
moral life in those who afterwards become remark*
aqle for the depth and intensity of their piety, — ^in
such a season, Faber, knowing nothing of what an
engagement of this kind involved, and ignorant of
himself and of everything but the merely exterior
import of his vow, had, by a sol«mn oath, devoted
himself to perpetual chastity; and probably this
mischievous prank had been sanctioned and ap-
plauded by those about him ! But the ill conse-
quences of this aet broke out within him in thair
season ; and he awoke too late to a consciousness
— ^not indeed of his enror — ^but of his misery. None
were at hånd to give him that simple advice which
virtue and Christianity would at once have oifered ;
and, from his friend, Ignatius, he received the
soundest sort of treatment which the ascetic quack-
ery has at its command. Tormented by nature,
and by his vow, the youth would have rushed into
the desert, vainly supposing that he might leave the
combatants behind him. His friend said no — ^you
will therefind no relief: — ^remember the instance of
that great saint, Jerome, who complains that in
the very heart of the desert of Judæa, he found
himself surrounded with the meretricious allure-

5*

106 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

ments of Rome ! You will caxry your enemy with
yoii : do not suppose thai the most extreme auster-
ities will alone avail to give you relief! Men re-
duced to mere shadows or skeletons, by fasting and
watching, have confessed that these severities had
been, in their case, wholly unavailing.

We are told that Loyola completely succeeded in
imparting peace of mind to his young friend ; but
it is far from easy to understand the precise means
which Jiie put in practice for this purpose. We
may however safely conclude that, of whatever
kind Loyola's curative devices might be, the cure
he effected — so far as a cure was effected — was
brought about mainly by the mere sympathy and
contact of intenseceligious feeling, aided, no doubt,
by the gradual imfolding of those vast designs
which Loyola was then digesting. A gUmpse,
from time to time afforded, of that unbounded em-
pire of which he had conceived the idea — quicken-
ing an ambition altogether in harmony with Faber's
State of mind, would avail infinitely more for his
deUverance from the thrall of his bosom enemy
than fastings, or the scourge ; or than Loyola's
very choicest samples of spiritual advice. In noble
natures a noble passion readily masters an ignoble.

He found a very difFerent subject in the youth
who next came within his influence — we should
scarcely say came under his influence ; for the
high-spirited and heroic Francis Xavier seems to
have held an independent course, almost from the
first period of his associating himself with Loyola.
His was a mind, and his a moral power, which
could not permanently adapt itself to a subordinate

HIS EARLY COMPANIONS. 107

position. Xavier, named, as he must be, among
the founders of Jesuitism, has a history of his own,
and we must follow him to India to contemplate so
signal an instance of religious energy and gran-
deur. He was of a noble Asturian family ; — robust
in person, handsome, accomplished, learned, and
covered with academic honors at the time when he
fell into the company, or attracted the eye of, Loyola.
Francis Xavier was high game in Loyola's view,
and he succeeded in attaching, we do not say snar-
ing, him ; and yet it seems to have been by adula-
tion, at first, tbat he achieved his conquest. But,
inasmuch as this remarkable man has had little
more to do with the Society than to lend it the
credit of his great name, and to dhied upon its early
history the splendor of his virtues, and as it would
be an error to think of him as, in any intimate
sense, a Jesuit, it is enough here to name him as
one of Loyola's first converts and companions.

James Laynez, a native of New Castile, and who
succeeded Loyola in the generalship of the Society,
is the next to be named in this enumeration of its
founders. To him, it is probable, are to be assigned
the more astute portions of the Constitutions ; and,
perhaps, it was from him that the Society received
the very character which ttie term Jesuitism has
come populary to represent. He is reputed to have
entered his twenty-second year when he became
acquainted with Loyola. His course of study he
had pursued with high credit at Ålcala, where he
had heard the farne of the extraordinary saint, to
whom now he made himself known. He had come
to Paris for the purpose of making fiirther pro-

108 lONATIVS LOYOLA.

ficiency m phiiosophy, along with a youth from
Toledo— -Alphonso Salmeron, accomplished as him-
self, and like-minded. Both, at the iirst interview,
and as if by inspiration, surrendered themselves to
the guidance of their new friend — underwent the
initiating discipline of the Spiritual Exercises, and
came forth from the process iired with zeal, to carry
forward the apostolic intentions of their master.
Each accessidn of this sort greatly enhanced
Loyola's reputation, and extended his influence, and
thus rendered his next conquest so much the more
easy. .

The next to be mentioned of these conquests,
altbough important in its consequences, was effected
under different circumstances. Å young Spaniard,
named Nicholas Ålphonso, and sumamed Bobadilla,
from the place of his birth, having failed to main-
tain himself at Yalladolid, as a teacher, had made
his way to Paris, where, in the extremity of indi-
gence, he had sought reUef from his countryman —
Loyola, who, finding him endowed with extraordi-
nary intelligence, had won him over to the spiritual
life, and had at length enroUed him among his col-
leagues. It was, no doubt, to this skill in the dis-
cernment of natural gi£^, that Loyola owed much
of his success.

The sixth of this band of disciples was a young
Portuguese, named Simon Rodriquez d'Arevedo, of
good family, handsome person, and of great inteUi-
gence. He had been maintained at college by the
king of Portugal. He had early formed acquaint-
ance with Loyola, at Paris ; but did not, till a later
time, yield himself to his influence. A rare, or, as

HIS EARLY COMPANIONS. 109

it is temied, an ^' angelic purity," was his distinction
by gift of nature ; and, from his earliest years, he
had indicated that the sei*vice of the church was to
be his vocation. He had, like Loyola, ardently
desired to attempt the conversion of infidels in the
East, and would probabiy have set out on that er-
rand, had not his friend explained to him at once
the difficulties he had himself encountered in Pal-
estine, and opened before him a wide field of labor
— shall we say an ample scope — for his ambition,
nearer home. It was at a later time that to these
w^re added others whose names stand prominent
among the founders of the Society. They were
Claude le Jay, a Savoyard ; John Codure, and Pas-
quier Brouet, of Picardy.

It was not to all alike, or not to all with the same
ingenuousness, that Loyola had (^ened his bosom.
His great idea, even if well defined in his own
thoughts, had been but dimly revealed to the favored
two — Laynez and Faber. To all, however, he had
imparted a poi'tion of his own spiritual intensity.
All were taught to believe that they were cailed of
Heaven in a special and peculiar sense, to carry
forward a great work ; and all (and each in propor-
tion to the vagueness of h^ own idea conceming
it) felt as men do when a n^h destiny is gradually
unfolding itself before thera. Moreover, as they
thought their own vocation to be of God, so did they
regard the supremacy of their chief as of divine
appointment.

Loyola well remembered the fickleness of his first
companions, most of whom had tumed aside quickly
— ^loving this present life, like Demas. Of his pres-

110 lONATIUS LOYOLA.

ent companions he thought better ; but he contem*
piated for them a step whrch shouid cut off their
retreat, and render their advance necessary. Some
of the set had not yet completed their college course,
and therefore it was unavoidable to postpone, for a
time, the adoption of any measures that might be
incompatible with the prosecution of their studies.
Meanwhile it was undesirable to leave them ex-
posed to the seductions of the world, or to any vac-
illations of. purpose: — ^the present purpose of each
was to be fixed by an irrevocable obligation.

The succinctness in some instances, and some-
times the absolute silence, of the writer who re-
ceived the materials of his Memoir from his mas-
ter's lips, compels us often, and on the most memo-
rable occasions, to derive our information from those
whose style indicates a purpose^ and a forethought
of consequences, in whatever they relate. It is thus
in what belongs to the formal origination of the
Society.

It was, we are told, in a sepulchral chapel or
crypt of the church of Montmartre, rendered illus-
trious as the scene of the decapitation of St. Diony-
sius — the apostle of France — that the disciples,
with their master, w€|^ assembled. And it was
appropriately on the feast of the Assumption of the
Yirgin that this solemn dedication of themselves
to the service of the Saviour took place, and that
the favor of " Mary, the Q,ueen of Virgins," shouid
thus be claimed as the protectress of an order
which makes profession of angelic purity.

One of the company, Faber, had taken priest's
orders, and from his hånds the rest received ^^ the

BIRTH OF THE SOCIETY. 111

body of our Lord," after whicb, and under the di-
rection of Loyola, they bound themselves by a sol-
emn oath which^ in its terms, included what was
general — namely, a profession of poverty, renuncia-
tion of the world, and absolute devotion to the ser-
vice of God, and the good of souls ; and also some
special or convertible conditions — namely, to at-
tempt a mission to Palestine ; or, should they be
frustrated in that design, to throw themselves at the
feet of the sovereign Pontiff, without reservation,
stipulation, or condition of any kind, offering to un-
dertake any service which he, the vicar of Christ,
should appoint them to.

This vow, the rudiment of that by which after-
wards every " professed" Jesuit bound himself, was
teiken by these founders of the Society, August
15th, in the year 1534. For completing the aca-
demic course of those of the company who had but
lately matriculated, a term of nearly three years
was allowed ; and it was formally agreed that, in
January of the year 1537, they should again as-
semble, for the purpose of giving effect to theii* pres-
ent 'intentions, in the mode which should then ap-
pear the most advisable. During this interval of
time, each engaged, annually, and on the day of the
same festival, to renew his solemn oath. Mean-
while, and constantly, each was to adhere to those
practices of devotion which Loyola had prescribed,
and from which no departure, in the smallest par-
ticular, was to be allowed. On frequent and stated
occasions they met, mutually advised each other, and
celebrated a sort of love-feast, in imitation of the
primitive Agapæ. He himself watched for their

112 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

souls with incessant care, spending entire days in a
cavern at Montmartre, where, subjecting himself to
extraordinary austerities, he travailed in spirit for
his friends.

At tbe same time he found much occupation, we
are told, in laboring to recover from perdition a
multitude of souls that had been led astray by the
audacious foUowers of Luther and Calvin. Favor ed
or screened by some illustrious persons at court,
these seducers bad proclaimed their blasphemies
aloud, even in Paris itself. With incredible assi-
duity he foUowed the steps of these " emissaries of
Satan," and his endeavors were successful with more
than a few, whom he led into the presence of the
inquisitors, there to effect their reconciliation to the
church. ^ >.

These various labors, however, together with a
renewal of his ascetic practices, seriously impaired
the health of Loyola, and brought upon him anew
some of those maladies of the stomach under which,
years before, he had severely suffered. His physi-
cians were baffled, and could ad vise nothing but a
return to his native air. Reluctantly he consented
to abandon his companions, and to relinquish his
labors among the people ; but at length he consented
so to do, the more readily, inasmuch as this jour-
ney might give him opportunity to seek out, and
perhaps to restore to piety, some of his former asso-
ciates.

Another motive also, incidentally alluded to by
his biographers, infiuenced his determination, and
probably it had more to do with this decision than
they are willing to suppose ; we might even con-

BIRTH OF THE SOCIBTY. 113

jecture that it constituted the principal reason of
his return to Spain. Would it be uncharitable to
surmise that the sagacious Loyola, understanding
human nature so well as he did, and confiding in
it so httle, employed his physician's opinion as the
screen of his own previously formed purpose ?

Several of his associates, that is to say, those of
them who were his countrymen, had temporal in-
terests pending in their native country, which de-
manded some attention from them, previously to
their absolute renunciation of all earthly ties. It
seemed to be their duty to return to their hornes,
severally, for a time, there to wind up their worldly
aifairs, and to bid adieu to their relatives. But yet
for them to do so could not but be regarded as a
perilous experiment. Loyola, if he did not mistrust
his friends, naturally feared what the consequence
of such a visit might be with some of them. While
therefore they should prosecute their studies, and
give attention to their religions du ties, he offered
them his services, as their agent in duly administer-
ing their worldly effects, and in thus sparing them all
the distraetion of mind, and the loss of time, as well
as the moral risks, which a return to their hornes
must have involved. Thus it was, as we conjec-
ture, that Loyola thought ; and in faet he did thus
step in between his friends and the perils they would
other^dse have ehcountered. It was particularly in
behalf of his three countrymen, Xavier, Salmeron,
and Lainez, that he undertook this joumey. Faber,
the only priest among them, he constituted his rep-
resehlative, and master of the company d uring his
absence.

114 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

Previously, however, to his leaving Paris, he
thought it due to his position, as being now the ac-
knowledged chief of a society, to obtain from the
inquisitor, before whom he had aheady appeared, a
formal and officially signed approbation of his doc-
trine, and especially of his Book of Spiritual Exer-
cises. This approval was readily granted by his
friend the inquisitor, Matthew Ori, who accom-
panied this exculpatory document with a profusion
of eulogiums. Loyola by these means silenced his
calumniators, and set out on his return to Spain
with a reputation for orthodoxy, signed and sealed
by the " Holy Office." Cordially might we wish
that this great man's reputation for Christian sim-
plicity — just at this point of his history — could so be
established as that it would stand fair in the eyes
of a holier tribunal than that of the Inquisition ; we
mean a truth-loving age like the present ! This
should bé remembered, that a large proportion of
the incidents of Loyola's life, from the time when he
stood before the world as the head of an Order, are
taken from the acts of his canonization ; that is to
say, from the eagerly sought-for testimony of per-
sons glad to contribute each his quota of marvels to-
ward making up the fame of so illustrious a saint.

If the facts were indeed just what they seem to
be as related by the Jesuit writers, how miserable a
farce was it for a man when within a half hour's
walk of his paternal castle, which he is implored to
en ter, and to call his own— for a man, who at the
very moment is followed by admiring crowds, and
has been met by a procession of dignitaries and
magistrates — for a man just in this position of

ms RETURN TO SPAIN. . 115

hooor and of superfluity, to go hobbling through a
village, begging a morsel of bread at each cottage
door! What can we say to instances of gigantic
noQsense such as this ; or to whom is it to be at-
tributed ? not, we are fain to believe, not to Igna-
tius Loyola. We must not think it possible that the
factitious religions system which had given him his
training, could so far have debauched the reason of
a man like the founder of the order of Jesuits, as
that he should make himself the hero of a perfonn-
ance combining so much of folly, of jugglery, and
of something akin to plunder.

Mounted on a serviceable pony, which had been
purchased for him by his friends, Loyola had set
forward on his journey toward the Pyrenean boun-
dary. As he crossed the range, and began to de-
scend toward the valleys of Guipuscoa, he breathed
health again. He turned however from the high
road which led directly toward the castle and
domains of his brother, and betoook himself to a
less frequented mountain path. But on this road —
his coming having been noised about — ^he was met
by messengers, sent forward by his brother, to con-
duct him to the family home. This invitation he
sternly declined ; and instead, sought shelter in an^
hospital near at hånd, whence, we are assured, he
issued daily to beg alms in the town. It is affiimed
that he held to this course for throe months, occu-
pying a pauper's birth at the hospital of St. Mag-
dalen, distributing among its inmates the sumptu-
ous fare sent him daily from the castle, and
sustaining himself wholly by the contributions of
the " oharitable" — ^that is to say, of his brother's

116 I6NATIUS liOYOLA.

poor tenants and dependants, who, not ignorant of
this mendicant's quality and position, duly played
theii part — crust in hånd — in this burlesque of
" holy poverty."

He was not however idle during this time ; but,
on the contrary, received all coraers at the hospital,
visited from house to house, preached in churches
and by the wayside — the eager crowds climbing the
trees to catch his words. But he could not confine
himself to these easier labors. Enjoying as he did
in this neighborhood a double influence, that, namely,
attaching to him as a noted saint, and that of which
he could not despoil himself as member of the first
family in the country, he felt himself to bo in a po-
sition whence he might not merely propound, but
might carry, difficult measures of reform. The
loose manners of the clergy, and the prevalence
among them of concubinage, called for rebuke, and
he administered it even in the instance of dignita-
ries ; nor did he hesitate to get enforced an obsolete
law, inflicting a public whipping upon any woman
who should usurp the costume of a lawful wife.
The due care of the poor he enjoined also ; and he
established the custom of sounding for prayers
three times in the day.

These reforms he effected with the greater ease
by means of the extreme severity of the penances
to which, at this time, and uo doubt with a perfect
understanding of the popular mind, he subjected
himself. Fastings, flagellations, an iron girdle, and
a bristly rough shirt, submitted to by the saint, and
spoken of on all sides, made every word he uttered
a law, and effectivély suppressed the murmurs of

HIS VISIT TO ITALY. 117

the painpered victiras of these etern medsures of
reform. How could a sleek priest or a burly monk
dåre to whisper a remonstrance, when the reprover
of their evil courses was seen going in and out
among the people — a cheerful martyr to so many
voluntary tortures ?

The time was come, however, in which he should
proceed to acquit himself of the secular oflSces he
had undertaken in behalf of his friands and coun-
trymen at Paris. He set out, therefore, attended to
the horders of the province by his brother and a
retinue ; but thence proceeded on foot, unattended,
and without purse, making his way first to Pampe-
luna, thence to Sanguessa, to Toledo and back to
Tudela — to each of which piaces the interests of
his friends cailed him ; — and then to Valencia, pur-
posing there to get a passage to Genoa. But in
pursuing this route he did not fail to make inquiry
concerning his early associates, whom, years before,
he had left to the strength of their own resolves.
Most of them, he leamed, had fallen away from
their profession, their religious ardor having soon
been exhausted. One of them, a Frenchman, had
secured his perseverance in virtue by entering a
monastery, Callistus was gone to India, in quest
of wealth. Cazeres had abandoned himself to a
life of ease and pleasure among his kindred. Ar-
tiaga, having pursued a course of ambition in the
church, had obtained a bishopric ; but had speedily
met an untimely end — poisoned by his own mis-
take. Loyola, praying for the restoration of those
who survived, and for the souls of the departed,
would not spend his time in any endeavors to seek

118 lØNATIUS LOYOLA.

tbem out, or in attempting their conversion. A
more promising course had now opened itself before
him, and he hastened onward, to make proof of it.
Loyola's friends — for friends he found at Valencia
— would fain have prevented his incurring the risks
of a voyage at a time when that terror of the Med-
iterranean, Barbarossa, with his fleet galleys, held
the sea almost as his undisputed domain. The
saint, however, was not to be so turned fi'om his
purpose ; — he embarked, encountered " the most
violent of all recorded tempests," and set foot on
the shores of Italy only to meet there new perils.
Thus it is that the margin of this eminent man's
history is, on évery inch of it, decdrated in the man-
ner that has been thought to be the most appropri-
ate to the life of so great a saint ; — " Atque tanta
maris incommoda, non sané levius terrestris itineris
discrimen excepit." That is to say — the illustrious
founder of the order of Jesuits must not be allowed
to pass from point to point of his course, with less
of épic accompanimént than befits the hero of an
Odyssey, or of an Æneid ! How refreshing, in the
perusal of such a man's personal history, would be
a little of the ordinary course of things! How
gladly should one rest, here and there, content amid
those commonplace realities with which truth is
ordinarily conversant! How would attention be
quickened by an admixture of this — ^the common-
place of real life, instead of that, than which nothing
is more wearisome — the commonplace of the mirac-
ulous ! Romish writers too often want the good
taste and the soundness of judgment which would
teach them, when their subject furnishes them with

mS VISIT TO ITALY. 119

the solid materials of moral and intellectual grcat-
ness, to be therewith satisfied. It seems, with these
writers — one and all — as if they could never recog-
nize a hero of their own — if they met him out of
his finery.

Of what magnitude Loyola's actual perils and
sufferings in travel were, we may safely form an
opinion, when we are assured by his friend, Gon-
salvo, that the following was regarded, by himself,
as the most extreme of any which it had been his
lot to encounter : these are the very words — " Atque
hic maximus fuit omnium laborum corporalium quos
unquam expertus est !" In his way from Genoa to
Bologna he travelled alone and in ignorance of the
road ; and thus it happened that he took a path
across the Apennines, which, though at the com-
mencement it appeared accessible, soon became
narrow and difficult, until at length it presented a
pass whence, as it seemed, he could not extricate
liimself in either direction. A rough ledge of rock
was his only footing, and this impending over a
rapid strcam, far below. Nothing could he do but
crawl forwards on bands and knees, catching at
each projecting point, and holding by any fibre
that hung from the crevices ; and thus it was that
he passed through " the greatest of all tliose bodily
labors which at any time he had encountered !"
Yet the destined trial of his patience was not com-
plete ; for just as he was entering Bologna, his foot
slipped in crossing the bridge ; headlong he tumbled
into a stagnant ditch, and in emerging, covered
with mud and filth, heard himself greeted with
shouts of laughter by the crowd about the gates.

120 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

At Bolo^a, to its etemal disgrace, the foimder
of the Jesuit order in vain asked alms from street
to Street ; not a farthing did he obtain ! Sick and
in destitution he at length betook himself to the
Spanish college in that city. (Why not resort
thither at the first ?) From Bologna, after a while,
he proceeded on his destined way toward Venice ;
where, as had been agreed, he was to meet his col-
leagues from France. While awaiting there their
ar ri val, toward the close of the year 1535, he em-
ployed himself in his customary manner, teaching
and preaching wherever opportunity presented it-
self. Signal success attended these evangelic la-
bors, and several persons of distinction were, at this
time, won by him to a Ufe of piety.

Among these converts at Venice, was a noble
Spaniard of Cordova named Hozez, who had taken
his bachelor's degree in theology, and had moreover
armed himself against the pejils of the times by a
fixed hatred of the German novelties. Already he
had heard of Loyola as an eminent preacher, and
as a master in the spiritual life ; but the whisper
had reached him of his having come under suspi-
cion of heresy once and again, and that this had
occurred as well in France as in Spain. Hozez,
therefore, approached this noted teacher with an
excited feeling of mingled admiration and distmst.
To protect himself against any lurking infection
of heresy, he carried about him, in his preliminary
interviews with his cQuntryman, certain books of
piety, and summaries of orthodox doctrine, as stand-
ards to which he might, in each instance of doubt,
appeal. He soon however found, or felt, that his

HIS VISIT TO ITALY. 121

alarms were groundless, and his precautions un-
called for. A genuine orthodoxy breathed itself
from the lips of his new friend ; and as to the
Spiritual Exercises, the whole tenor of them was
in harmony with the doctrine and usage of the
Church. ^'An implicit submission to the decisions
of the Church is," said Ignatius to his noble disciple,
" a Christian's first duty. Nothing that has been
authorized by the Church is to be called in question.
Whatever she has approved we are not merely to
accept as true and good, for ourselves, but are to be
ready to defend with our utmost zeal and ability.
We are to confonn ourselves to the ordinances of
our ecclesiastical superiors, even although their own
lives should not be as edifying as we might wish.
Never are we to indulge in invectives against such
dignitaries. As to the ancient Fathers of the
Church, it was their office principally to stir up de-
vout affections in the minds of men : but it was
the office of the doctors of a later time, and es-
pecially of Saint Thomas, to digest, definitely to
expound, and authoritatively to teach, the Christian
doctrine. It is therefore to the writings of these
great and holy men, and to those of the last men-
tioned particularly, that an appeal is to be made on
points of belief ; and it must be from these arsenals
that we are to draw our weapons, when called to
contend with heretics."

It was thus, and with many exhortations breath-
ing the same spirit, that the Master succeeded in
thoroughly dispelling the misgivings of the disciple,
who, after a short period of uncertainty, surrendered
himself unreservedly to his guidance in matters

122 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

both of belief and practice. This, and many simi-
lar successes among persons of note at Venice, did
not fail to awaken, as heretofore, the jealousies and
alarms of ecclesiastical dignitaries. Loyola was
therefore cited anew to render an account of his
life and doctrine. " Was it true that he had been
burned in eflSgy in some towns of Spain, as well as
at Paris ?" Again, however, as on other occasions,
this most catholic of agitators fouhd it easy to clear
himself of every suspicion of heterodoxy ; and he
obtained a decision so decisively in his fa vor as
served greatly to enhance the influence he already
possessed over the minds of his followers, and among
the people.

It was about the same time that he formed an
intimacy with some persons of importance, whose
knowledge of him, and whose opinion of his piety
and ability, had much effect afterwards in promot-
ing the formation, and in facilitating the movements
of the Order, when it was to be publicly recognized.
Among these persons the most remarkable was the
noted Caraffa, aftenvards Paul IV. This intimacy
moreover gave rise to the idea, at first generally
prevalent, that the Jesuits were of the order of
Theatines, to which Caraffa had attached himself

It was in the early days of the year 1537, that
Loyola's companions — the Fathers of the Society,
arrived from Paris, at Venice, and there, in undi-
minished fervor of spirit, joyfuUy greeted their chief
and teacher.

They had taken their course through France,
Germany, and Switzerland, staff in hånd, their
books of piety in knapsacks on their shoulders, each

HIS VISIT TO ITALY. 123

with his chaplet of beads round his neck, as sign of
his profession, and most necessary in traversing
countries pervadcd by heresy. As they went they
begged their bread. The three who were in priest's
orders administered the communion daily to their
companions, and the company diverted the toils and
sufferings of the journey by singing psalms, or by
pious discoqrse. War was raging on every^ide of
their route ; and — worse than this — Satan, trium-
phant in the persons of Lutherans, and of the de-
luded foUowers of the Swiss heresiarchs, beset their
way with perils, visible and invisible.

The nin« companions, now joined by the late
con ver t, Hozez, and with Ignatius at their head,
constituted the Society at the moment when it was
re-organized at Venice. These distributed them-
selves among the hospitals of the city, wheie they
gave their free services to the sick and poor. After
a time thus spent, and during which, it is probable,
the intention of the new order was more fuUy ex-
poimded by Loyola to his companions than hereto-
fore it had been, and the rules of the Society digest-
ed and assented to, — it was felt that a decisive step
must be taken in furtherance of the work to which
they had dedicated their lives. Already the devo-
tedness of their behavior, their assiduity in labors
of charity, even the most humiliating and revolting,
as well as the singular energy and intelligence
which marked their public and private discourses,
had attracted universal attention. Persons of all
ranks flocked around them, in admiration of their
piety, and eager to profit by their advices and ex-
hortations.

124 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

Well they understood — and their chief espccially
understood it — that this notoriety, and this high
repute, they could not long enjoy, unprotected as
they were, exempt from calumny, or even from ao
tive hostility. Undoubtediy a storm would soon
gather around them, and might burst upon their
heads. To prevent this anticipated mischief, and
at the-same time to obtain, in behalf of the infant
society, the highest sanction, it was resolved that
they should present themselves before the sovereign
pontiff, Paul III., proffering to the apostolic see,
themselves, without conditions ; — their bodies, souls,
and utmost services, to be disposed of for the good
of the Church, in whatever manner should be judged
the most conducive to that end. Simply to obtain
the apostoUc permission and benediction for their
proposed journey to Palestine, was the immediate
object of their suit at Rome.

It is noticeable that, on this critical and momen-
tous occasion, Loyola dechned to accompany his
colleagues — declined to show himself at Rome, as
chief or founder of the new society. He instructed
and sent forward his friends, while he himself re-
mained at Venice, to await the issue of their mis-
sion. The motives of this backwardness are not
conspicuous, or are not authentically known. Os-
tensibly — ^but this could not be the true or principal
reason — Loyola stayed at Venice to make the ar-
rangements requisite for the voyage to the East ;
but undoubtediy some one of the party could, as
well as the chief, have taken charge of a function
siich as this. It is said that Loyola had lately be-
come personally obnoxious to his early friend Ca-

HIS VISIT TO ITALY. 125

raffa, created cardinal by Paul III., and whp might
have opposed himself to the company, had it been
headed by him. Yet this band of suppliants com-
manded at this time the z^alous good offices of one
whose influence at the Court of Rome was second
perhaps to that of few : this was Peter Ortiz, a
Spanish ecclesiastic, who, at Paris, had formed an
intimacy with Loyola, and who held him in the
highest esteem. At this time he represented the
Emperor Charles, in behalf of his sister, Catherine
of Arragon, the validity of whose marriage he main-
tained.

The most favorable impressions of the company,
and of several of the individuals composing it, were
conveyed by Ortiz to the pontiff; and it was per-
haps to this auspicious introduction that the Society
owed, in measure, the favors, so many and so sig-
nal, which, in the lapse of years, it received from
the hånds of this pope : not improbably, the Span-
ish procurator intimated to him something concern-
ing the rank and high connections of two or three
of those in whose behalf he thus interposed.

This accomplished pontiflf— Alexander Famese —
thorough man of the world as he was, and the as-
sociate of scholars and philosophers, understood too
well on what foundations the papal power rested,
to discourage any who professed their readiness to
spend their lives in strengthening and extending
the basement of the Church. And at this particu-
lar juncture, especially, there was no extrava^ance
of zeal, how much soever it might amuse himself
or his table companions, which he would fail to
promote — even at the cost of a few crowns, and an

126 lONATIUS LOYOLA.

apostolic benediction — if it seemed adapted to the
purpose of lending aid in the doubtful coufiiict at
that time raging between the Ohurch and its as-
sailants in Northem Europe. The Fathers of the
Society were invited to take their part in those
learned discussions in listening to which his holi-
ness was accustomed to amuse his leisure hours ;
and these conversations afforded them a very fa-
vorable opportunity for giving proof of their accoui-
plishments and intelligence. Nothing better could
have been wished for by themselves ; and the pope
and his friends quickly understood that this band
could not be held in contempt on any ground except
that of their sincere religions belief, and of their
self-denying zeal. In learning, acuteness, and even
in wit, these simple souls were quite on a level with
the accomplished voluptuaries of the papal court.
* In a word, their suit was granted — the benedic-
tion they implored was bestowed — ^gold, which they
did not ask, was lavished upon them — dispensa-
tions were given for the juniors to receive priests'
orders prematurely ; and all the license needed far
converting Turks and heretics — the wide world
over, was allowed them. It was no doubt with
much edification that the pope and his friends soon
afterwards learned that these men, as well born and
as well bred as themselves, had reserved so much
only of the money they had received as would be
required to pay their passage to the Holy Land ;
and that, leaving the surplus in the hånds of those
who were to employ it for charitable purposes, they
had gone forth from Rome as destitute as when
they entered it ; and that they had actually begged

ras VISIT TO ITALY. 127

their bread in the streets as they were quitting' the
city ! It is thus not unfrequently that the utter
foUy of a sensual and atheistic course of life is set
in strong relief before us, wheii it happens to be
contrasted with some wild extravagance of zeal
which, how inordinate soever it may be, we must,
nevertheless, confess to be wise and good when
brought into such a point of comparison.

The Fathers, in three companies, made their way
back to Venice in the same plight in which they
came — hardly bestead and hungry. On rejoining
their master, he, and those of them who still were
laics, received priests' orders from the nimcio there.
They moreover renewed their solemn engagements
toward each other, and afresh dedicated themselves
to the service of God, of the Church, and of man-
kind everywhere.

War still raged between the Venetians and the*
Turks, nor was it possible to obtain, by any means,
a passage to the shores of Palestine. Nevertheless,
that there might be no ground hereafter for re-
proaches of conscience, the party resolved to await
in the neighborhood of Venice the expiration of the
year which their vow embraced ; so that if, contrary
to all probability, the war should be brought to a
speedy conclusion, they might instantly re-assemble,
and snatch at any favorable opportunity for ac-
complishing their original pui*pose.

Meanwhile, in this crowded and voluptuous city,
and in the surrounding territory, men so minded as
were these fathers could not want a field of labor.
They went forth, therefore, to their work, three and
three ; Loyola taking as his companions, as before,

128 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

Lainez and Faber; and it is these who •ehould be
regarded as, in a strict sense, the authors of the
Jesuit Institute. It was at this time, no doubt, be-
neath the bare shelter of a hoveFs crazy roof, and
often in want of food, and woni with toil, as street
preachers, tbat these extraordinary men, throwing
into a common stock their individual gifts, digested,
in ioving concert, the rules of the Society, so far as
it is constituted by written prccepts ; and more than
this — ^brought vividly before their own minds those
un written principles which, from the first, have been
to it a secret soul and mind — a code not written
upon paper, but deep cut upon the fleshy tablet of
every Jesuit's heart.

Loyola, Lainez, and Faber, quitting Venice, be-
took themselves to the neighboring town, Vicenza.
In a neglected and miserable suburb of this place
they found a deserted building — open to the blasts
of heaven — open to any rude intruder ; for it had
neither door nor window ! This was the place of
their conclave, and their only home : in the most
sheltered comer of it they slept upon a bundle of
straw or stubble, coUected by themselves. But here
the hubbub of the town was not heard ; and here
— or at least during the hours of darkness — ^the
solace of prayer and meditation might be enjoyed
without disturbance ; and here, at midnight, none
making them afraid, the soul-kindling psalm might
be recitedj and the hymn, lifting the thoughts
toward the world of triumphant harmony, might
loudly be eung ! Happy inmates of this hovel —
happy, we say again, and say it with emphasis,
after looking into the gUtteiing palaces of Yenice :

HIS ITINERANT I.ABORS. 129

happy its inmates ; and wise too — ^if man be im-
mortal !

The plan adopted, after a preUminary season of
prayer, was for two to go forth daily into the town,
there to ask alms and to exercise their evangelic
functions among the people, while one remained at
home — ^if horn« it might be called, to guard their
little stock of hooks and utensils, and to prepare food
for supper, if food were in store. It was Ignatius,
we are told, who most often took upon himself this
domestic charge ; and it is said' that the reason for
his doing so — out of his turn — was his laboring un-
der a complaint in the eyes, brought on by excessive
weeping ! an ambiguous explanation, we must think
it, of an ambiguous course of conduct.

Forty days having been spent in penitential exer-
cises, and a colleague having joined them, the fathers
entered upon a course of labors the most arduous;
Not one of them possessed a fluent and coUoquial
command of the Italian language — a language
which is so difficult an instrument in the hånds of
those who are imperfectly acquainted with its re-
finements. Forth they went, however, as street
preachers. A stone, at the corner of a house, or a
stool, borrowed from a shop, was pulpit enough.
The preacher, occupying some such position, waved
his bonnet over his head, and in a loud voice sum-
moned the people to attend. Wan and wasted was
his countenance — his eyes deep sunken, his attire
worn, and in ill trim. At first mistaken for a quack,
the gathering crowd was soon subdued to quietness
and solemnity by the awe-inspiring tones of the
speaker's voice, and its attention fixed by the weight

6*

130 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

of the subject-matter of his discourae, by the inteu-
sity of his manner, by the fearful energy of his ges-
ticulations, and by the majesty of that appeal to the
conscience, which those are best able to make, whose
thorough conviction of the truth and importance of
what they affirm is recommended to the hearer by
that dignity and self-possession which belongs to
men who are well educated and well bred.

A similar advantage — ^let it be called adventitioua
and non-essential, and yet real — attached to the
open-air preachings of the founders of Methodism.
In this instance, however, it is not a John or a
Samuel Wesley to whom we are listening, and yet
the story is substantially the same (as were the
topics). On the skirts of the crowd in the streets
and squares of Vicenza, and of the neighboring towns
and cities, there were usually seen some who came
up to mock the speaker and to disturb the congre-
gation ; but who, after venting for a few minutes
their ribaldry and profane jests, were suddenly smit-
ten by a word catching their unwilling ears. The
counteneuice falls — the straggler stands perplexed —
pushes forward toward the speaker — listens breath-
less — smelts — and perhaps with a loud voice, inter-
rupted by sobs, confesses himself conscience-smitten
and vanquished ! Such conquests not unfrequently
gladdened, we are told, the labors of these evan-
gelists ; and it is quite credible that it was so ; for
similar successes have ever rewarded the labors of
apostolic preachers of every chmch, and of what-
ever school in theology.

The Fathers, when not abroad, preaching and
teaching, were resorted to by many of these con-

HIS ITINERANT LABORS. 131

verts, to whom they gave sedulous attention. Some
brief hours of rest excepted, they employed them-
selves in these labors early and late. Their de-
votedness, their cheerfiil endurance of privations,
their humility, fervor, and especially their well stis-
tained personal behavior, produced an impression,
of the most powerful kind, upon persons of all
classes ; and they quickly became the objects of
general affection and reverence. In consequence
of this change in their favor, their personal comfort
was henceforward religiously attended to by devout
persons, so that instead of the fragments of mouldy
bread, which, for weeks, had constituted almost
their only fare, they were now regularly and copi-
ously supplied with the best provisions. At the
same time, it is said, and we take it on the author-
ity of Loyola's own narrations, that he was favored,
not merely with spiritual consolations of the most
peculiar kind, but with visions or visitations, super-
natural, such as he had not been wont to experience
since the time of his retreat in the cavern at Man-
resa. A critical epoch in his personal history is now
before us ; and any one must feel it to be such who,
sincerely wishing to render justice to the founder of
Jesuitism, must yet reserve his faith in what is pro-
fessedly supematural, for narratives that stand quite
ezempt from colorable suspicion.

CHAPTER TI.

LOYOLA's ELECTION to THE GENERALSHIP OF

THE SOCIETY.

The eleven companions had, at ihis time, drawn
together at Vicenza, where they had made a greater
impression upon the popular mind than elsewhere,
and whence they had made excursions to the neigh-
boring towns — topreach, and — although it does not
appear why this should have been necessary — to
beg.

The time had now nearly expired to which their
vow extended, in relation to Palestine; no pros-
pect, however, of their finding it practicable to
undertake the voyage had presented itself, in the
interval, or was now apparent. The Fathers there-
fore woidd quickly find themselves released in con-
science from that particular obligation, and might
hold themselves firee — no doubt much to their in-
ward satisfaction — ^to prosecute those more vast
Bchemes of spiritual agency which, lately, had been
opened to their view. Loyola himself, it is proba-
ble, had willingly, and perhaps not very slowly, re-
linquished a vague ambition to convert a wor^d of
Mahometan misbeUevers, in favor of that far better
defined, as well as more practicable, plan which the
Jesuit institute embodied, and which, while it did
indeed embrace the converaion of Turks and pagans,

EARLY TIME OF THE SOCIETY. 133

held mainly to the purpose of erecting a ghostly
empire over the entire area of ChristendcMn.

On this ground the Fathers deliberated at Vi-
cenza ; and it was here decided that the prelimi-
nary step should forthwith be taken. This pre-
liminary measure was, to make a new proffer of
themselves, and of their services, to the apostolic
see, which should be invited to accept, as an uncon-
ditional oblation, the bodies and souls, the well-
being, and the energies of this band, to be disposed
of in the most absolute manner, and for the promo-
tion and upholding of the authority of the church.

This time it was Loyola himself, with his chosen
colleagues, Faber and Lainez, that undertook the
mission to Rome ; while the eight were to disperse
themselves throughout northern Italy, and especially
to gain a footing, if they could, and to acquire in-
fluence at those seats of learning, where the youth
of Italy were to be met with ; such as Padua, Fer-
rara, Bologna, Sienna, and Yicenza. Surprising
effects resulted, it is said, from these labors ; but
we tum toward the three fathers, Ignatius, Lainez,
and Faber, who are now making their way on foot
to Rome.

If Loyola'scourse of secular study, and if his vari-
ous engagements as evangelist, and as chief of a
isociety, had at all chilled his devotional eudor, or
had drawn his thoughts away from the unseen
world, this fervor, and this upward direction of the
mind, now returned to him in full force : we are
assured that, on this pilgrimage, and ^Hhrough
favor of the Virgin," his days and nights were
passed in a sort of continuous ecstasy. As they

134 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

drew toward the city, and while upon the Sienna
road, he turned aside to a chapel, then in a ruinous
condition, and which he entered alone. Here ec-
stasy became more ecstatic still ; and, in a trance,
he believed himself very distinctly to see Him whom,
as Holy Scripture affirms, " no man hath seen at
any time." By the side of this vision of the invisi-
ble, appeared Jesus, bearing a huge cross. The
Father presents Ignatius to the Son, who utters the
words, so full of meaning, "I will be favorable to
you at Rome."

It is no agreeable task thus to compromise the
awful realities of religion, and thus to perplex the
distinctions which a religions mind wishes to observe
between truth and illusion ; yet it seems inevitable
to narrate that which comes before us, as an integral
and important portion of the history we have to do
with. And yet, incidents such as these, while they
will be very far from availing to bring us over as
converts to the system which they are supposed
superaaturally to authenticate, need not generate
any extreme revulsion of feeling in an opposite direc-
tion. Good men, ill-trained, or trained under a
system which, to so great an extent, is factitious,
demand from us often, we do not say that which
an enlightened Christian charity does not include,
but a something which is logically distinguishable
from it; we mean a philosophic habit of mind,
accustomed to deal with human nature, and with
its wonderful inconsietencies, on the broadest prin-
ciples.

Some diversities of language present themselves
in the narratives that have come down to us of this

EARLY TIME OP THE SOCIETY. 135

vision. la that which, perhaps, is worthy of the
most regard, the phraseology is such as to suggest
the belief that its exact meaning should not easily
be gathered from the words. Loyola had asked of
the Blessed Virgin — ut eum cum fiiio suo poneret ;
and during this trance this request, whatever it
might mean, was manifestly granted.*

From this vision, and from the memorable words
— Ego vobis Romæ propitius ero, the Society may
be said to have taken its formal commen cement, and
to have drawn its appellation. Henceforward it was
"the Society of Jesus;" — for its founder, introduced
to the Son of God by the Eternal Father, had been
orally assured of the divine favor — favor consequent
upon his present visit to Rome. Here, then, we have
exposed to our view the inner economy, or divine
machinery, of the Jesuit Institute. The Mother
of God is the primary mediatrix; the Father, at her
intercession, obtains for the founder an auspicious
audience of the Son ; and the Son authenticates the
use to be made of His name in this instance ; and
so it is that the inchoate order is to be — " The
Society of Jesus !"

An inquiry, to which, in faet, no certain reply
could be given, obtrudes itself upon the mind on an
occasion like this, namely, How far the infidelity
and atheism which pervaded Europe in the next
and the following century sprung directly out of
profanations such as this ? Merely to narrate them,

* Ita animam suum moveri mutarique seDsit, tamque maDifesté
vidit, quod eum Deus Pater cum Ghristo Filio suo poneret, ut de
eo dubitare non auderet, quin eum Deus Pater cum Filio suo pa-
neret.

136 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

and to do so in the briefest manner, does violence
to every genuiiie sentiment of piety. What must
have been the effect produced upon frivolous and
sceptical tempers, when, with sedulous art, such
things were put forward as solemn verities not to be
distinguished from the prunary truths of religion,
and entitled to the same reveréntial regaipd in our
minds !

Loyola. althcmgh thus warranted, as he thought,
in assuming for his order so peculiar and exclusive
a designation, used a discreet reserve at the first, in
bringing it forward, lest he should wound the self-
love of rival bodies, or seem to be challenging for
his Company a superiority over other religions orders.
So much caution as this his past experience would
naturally suggest to him ; and that he felt the need
of it is indicated by what he is reported to have
said as he entered Rome. Although the words so
recently pronounced still sounded in his ears —
Ego vobis Romæ propitius ero, yet, as he set foot
within the city, he turned to his companions and
said, with a solemn significance of tone, *^ I see the
Windows shut," — meaning that they should there
meét much opposition, and find occasion for the
exercise of prudence and of a patient endurance
of siifferings :— of prudence, not less than of
patience.

But while care was to be taken not to draw
toward themselves the envious or suspicious regards
of the religions orders, or of ecclesiastical potentates)
there was even a more urgent need of discretion
in avoiding those occasions of scandal which might
spring from their undertaking the cure of the souls

EARLY TIME OF THE SOCIETY. 137

of the other sex. Inta what jeopardy of their saintly
reputation had certain eminent men fallen in this
very manner ; and how narrowly had they escaped
the heaviest imputations ! The Pathers were not
to take upon themselves the office of confessors to
women — nisi essent admodum illustres. That the
risk must necessarily be less, or that there would
be none. in the instance of ladies of high rank, is
not conspicuously certain ; but if not, what were
those special motives which should warrant the
Fathers in incurring this peril in such cases ? Mere
Christian charity would undoubtedly impel a man
to meet danger for the welfare of the soul of a poor
sempstress, as readily as for that of a duchess, or
the mistress of a monarch. If therefore the peril
is to be braved in the one case which ought to be
evaded in the other, there must be present some
motive of which Christian charity knows nothing.
So acutely alive was Loyola to the evils that might
spring to his order from this source, that we find
him at a later period not merely rebutting ladies —
admodum illustres, but bearding the pope and the
cardinals, and glaringly contravening his own vow
of unconditional obedience to the vicar of Christ,
rather than give way to the soHcitations of fair and
noble penitents.

Soon after the arrival of the three — Loyola,
Faber, and Lainez — at Rorae, in the year 1537,
they obtained an audience of the pope, who wel-
comed their return, and anew gave his sanction to
their endeavors. Faber and Lainez received ap-
poii^tments as theological professors in the Gym-
nasium ; while Loyola addressed himself wholly to

138 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

the care of souls, and to the reform of abuses. To
several persons of distinction, and to some digni-
taries of the Church, he administered the discipline
of the Spiritual Exercises — they, for this purpose,
withdrawing to solitudes in the neighborhood of
Rome, where they were daily conversed with and
instructed by himself. At the same time he labored
in hospitals, schools, and private houses, to induce
repentance and to cherish the languishing piety of
those who would listen to him. Among such, and
who fuUy surrendered their souls to his guidance,
were — the Spanish procurator, already mentioned
— Peter Ortiz, and Cardinal Gaspar Contarini, both
of whom were led by him into a course of fervent
devotion, in which they persisted, and who more-
over continued to use their powerful influence in
favor of the infant society.

The pulpits of many of the churches in the sev-
eral cities where the fathers had slationed them-
selves, and some in Rome, had been opened to their
use, and the energy and the freshness of their
eloquence affected the popular mind in an extraor-
dinary manner; sometimes, indeed, they brought
upon themselves violen t opposition ; but in more
frequent instances their zeal and patient assiduity
triumphing over prejudice, jealousy, ecclesiastical
inertness, and voluptuousness, the tide of feeling
set in with this new impulse, and a commencement
was effectively made of that Catholic revival which
spread itself throughout southern Europe — turned
back the Reformation-wave — saved the papacy,
and secured for Christendom the still needed an-

\

* EARLY TIME OF THE SOCIETY. 139

tagonist influentes of the Romish and of the Re-
formed systems of doctrine, worship, and polity.

At Rome, Loyola, by his personal exertions, ef-
fected great reforms in liturgicai services — induced
a more frequent and more devout attention to the
sacraments of Confession and the Eucharist — es-
tablished and promoted the catechetical instruction
of youth ; and, in a word, restored to Romanism
much of its vitality.

The author and mover of so much healthful
change did not escape the persecutions that are the
lot of reformers. Such trials Loyola encountered,
and he passed through them triumphantly ] — so we
are assured ; but in listening to the Jesuit writers,
when telling their own story, where the credit of
the order and the reputation of its founder are
deeply implicated, it is with reservation that we fol-
low them.

So fearful a storm — yet a storm long before de-
scried, it is said, by Loyola — fell suddenly upon him
and his coUeagues, that it seemed as if the infant
society could by no means resist the impetuous tor-
rent that assailed it. The populace, as well as per-
sons in authority, suddenly gave heed to rumors the
most startling which came in at once from Spain,
from France, and from the north of Italy, and the
purport of which was to throw upon the Fathers
the most grievous imputations, affecting their per-
sonal character as well as their doctrine. These
men were reported to be heretics, Lutherans in
disguise, seducers of youth, and men of flagitious
life.

The author or secret mover of this assault is said

140 IGNATIUS LOYOLA. •

lo have been a Piedmontese monk, of the Augus-
tinian order, himself a secret favorer of the Lutheran
heresy, and " a tool of Satan," and who at last,
throwing off the mask, avowed himself a Lutheran.
This man, for the purpose of diverting from him-
self the suspicions of which his mode of preaching
had made him the object at Rome, raised this out- '
cry against Loyola and his companions, afiirming
of them slanderously and falsely what was quite
true as to himself.

The pope and the court, having been for some
time absent'from Rome, this disguised heresiarch
bad seized the opportunity for gaining the ear of
the populace, by inveighing against the vices of
ecclesiastics, and insinuating opinions to which he
gave a color of truth by citations from scripture,
and the early fathers. Two of Loyola's coUeagues,
Salraeron and Lainez, who, in their passage through
Germany, had become skilled in detecting Lutheran
pravity, were deputed to listen to this noisy preacher :
they did so, and reported that the audacious man
was^under some disguise of terms, broaching rank
Lutheranism in the very heart of Rome ! Loyola,
however, determined to treat the heresiarch courte-
ously, and therefore sent him privately an admoni-
tion to abstain from a course which occasioned so
much scandal, and which could not but afflict Cath-
olic ears. The preacher took fire at this remon-
strance, and openly attacked those who had dared
thus to rebuke him.

Thus attacked, Loyola and his coUeagues, on
their side, loudly maintained the great points of
Oatholic doctrine, impugned by this preacher, such

EARLY TIME OP THE SOCIETY. 141

«

as the merit and necessity of good works — the va-
lidity of religious vows, and the supreme authority
of the church ; and in consequence it became ex-
tremely difficuU on his part to ward off the im-
putation of Lutheranism, or to make it appear
that he was anything. else than a self-condemned
heretic. He however so far commanded the popu-
lar mind that he maintained his reputation and his
influence, and actually succeeded in rendering his
accusors the objects of almost imiversal suspicion
or hatred. Their powerful friends fo^sook them —
all stood aloof — or all but a Spaniard, named Gar-
zonio, who, having lodged Loyola and some of his
companions under his roof, knew well their sound-
ness in the faith, and their personal piety. Through
his timely intervention the cardinal-dean of the sa-
cred college was induced to inform himself, by a
personal intei*view, of their doctrine and life.

This dignitary was satisfied, and more than sat-
isfied, of the innocence and piety of the fathers.
Nevertheless Loyola, looking far forward, and know-
ing well what detriment to his order might arise, in
remote quarters, from slanders not authoritatively
refuted and disallowed, demanded to be confronted
with his accusers before the ecclesiastical authori-
ties. He would be content with no vague or irreg-
ular expression of approval — ^he would accept no
half acquittal. He sought, and at length obtained,
an official exculpation in the amplest terms, with
an acknowledgment of his orthodoxy on the part
of the highest authority on earth, and this was
granted under circumstances that gave it universal
notoriety.

142 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

In court the principal witness was confounded by
proof, under his own hånd, of the falseness of the
allegation he had advanced, and at the same time
testimonials irom the highest quarters, in favor of
the Fathers, severally and individually, arrived op-
portunely; in a word, the Society, in this early
and signal instance, triumphed over its assailants ;
and thenceforward it occupied a position the most
lofty and commanding in the view of the Catholic
world. Loyola and his coUeagues saw the ruin of
their adversaries ; two of whom, falling into the
hånds of the inquisitors, were bumed as heretics.

The time was now come for effecting a perma-
nent organization of the Society, and for installing
a chief at its head. With these purposes in view,
Loyola summoned his coUeagues to Rorae, from the
cities of Italy whese they were severally laboring.
The Fathers being assembled,* he commended to
them anew the proposal which they had already
accepted, but which he seemed anxious to fix irrev-
ocåbly upon their consciences, by often repeated
challenges of the most solemn kind. To impart the
more solemnity to this repetition of their mutual
engagements, and to preclude, by all means, the
possibility of retraction, he advised that several
days should be devoted to preliminary prayer and
fasting, during which season each should, with an
absolute surrender of himself to the will of God,
await passively the manifestation of that will.

* The meeting now spoken of appears to have taken plaee dur-
ing Lent of the year 1538 ; but it was not untiltwo years later that
the Society obtained a formal ecclesiastical recognition by the bull
of Paul III.

EARLY TIME OP THE SOCIETY. 143

"Heaven," saidLoyolato his companions, "Heaven
has forbidden Palestine to our zeal ; — nevertheless
that zeal burns with increasing intensity, from day
to day. Should we not hence infer that God has
cailed us — not indeed to undertake the conversion
of one nation, or of a country, but of all the people,
and of all the kingdoms of the world ?"

Such was the founder's profession, and such the
limits of his ambition ! The spiritual mechanism
which he had devised, and which he was now put-
ting in movement, intends nothing that is partial or
circumscribed ; its very purport is universal ity ; it is
absolutism carried out until it has embraced the
human family, and has brought every human spirit
into its toils.

But so small a band could hope for no success
that should be indicative of an ultimate triumph,
unless they would surrender themselves individually
to a common will, which should be, to each of them,
as the will of God, articulately pronounced. After
renewing therefore the vows of poverty, of chastity,
and of unconditional obedience to the pope, the
Fathers assented to the proposal that one of their
number should, by the suffrages of all, be constitu-
ted the superior, or general of the order, and as such
be invested with an authority as absolute as it
was possible Ibr man to exercise, or for men to
submit to ! Yet, to whose hånds should be as-
signed — and for life — this irresponsible power over
the bodies, souls, and understandings of his com-
panions ?

It had not been until after a lengthened prepara-
tion of fasting, prayer, and night-watching, that a

144 lONATIUS LOTOJiA.

resolution so appalling had been formed. Yet it
was easier to consent to the proposal, abstractedly
placed before them, than to yield themselves to all
its undefined and irrevocable consequences when
the awful surrender of what is most precious to man
— his individuality — was to be made ; not to a chief
unuamed ; but to this or that one among them-
selves. To whose hånds could the ten consign the
irresponsible disposal of their souls and bodies?
They had, however, already advanced too far to re-
cede : they had, as they believed, in humble imita-
tion of Christ the Lord, offered themselves as a
living sacrifice to God — so far as concerned the body
— ^by the vow of poverty, and the vow of chastity :
— they had thus immolated the flesh, and had re-
served to themselves nothing of worldly possessions,
nothing of earthly solaces ; — all had been laid upon
the altar : they had moreover professed their wil-
lingness to deposit there their very souls. The vow
of unconditional obedience, as thus understood, was
a holocaust of the immortal well-being. Each now,
as an offering acceptable to God, was to pawn his
interest in time and eternity, putting the pledge into
the hånds of one to be chosen by themselves. It
was debated whether this absolute power should be
conferred upon the holder of it for life, or for a term
of years only ; and whether in the fuDest sense it
should be without conditions, or whether it should
be limited by constitutional forms. At length, how-
ever, the election of a general for life was assented
to ; and especially for this reason — and it is well to
note it — That the new society had been devised and
formed for the very purpose of carrying forward vast

EARLT TIME OF THE SOCIETY. 145

designs, which must demand a long course of years
for their development and execution; and that nø
one who must look forward to the probable termina-
tion of his generalship, at the expiration of a few
years, could be expected to undertake, or to prose-
cute with energy, any such far-reaching projects.
On the contrary, he should be allowed to believe
that the limits of his life alone need be thought of
as bounding his holy ambition. Provisions were
however made, as we shall hereafter see, for holding
some sort of control over the individual to whom so
much power was to be intrusted. The actual elec-
tion of Loyola to the generalship, did not formaliy
take place until after the time when the order had
received pontificial authentication. Meantime all
implicitly regarded him as their master ; from him
emanated the acts of the body ; and to him was as-
signed the task — aided by Lainez — of preparing
what should be the constitutions of the society.

During the interval between the concerted organ-
ization of the order, and the formal recognition of
Loyola as the general, he found several occasions
highly favorable for extending and for enhancing
bis influence, as well among the common people, as
amcng ecclesiastical dignitaries. One such oppor-
tunity was afforded, soon after the above-mentioned
exculpation of the Fathers, by the occurrence of a
famine, during an unusually severe winter. The
streets of Rome presented the spectacle of hundreds
of half-naked and starving wretches, who fruitlessly
implored aid, or who silently expired unaided.
Loyola and his colleagues, themselves subsisting
from day to day on alms, felt often — ^we are told —

7

146 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

the nip of hunger, yet they needed no incitement
which these scenes of woe did not spontaneously
supply. They were at once alive to the claims of
humanity, and to the requirements of Christian
du ty. They begged for the perishing — took them
to such shelter as was at their command — carefuUy
and tenderly ministered to the sick — and withal,
used the advantage which these offices of kindness
afforded them, for purposes of reUgious instruction.
Hundreds, rescued from death through cold and
hunger, were thus brought to repentance on the
path which the church prescribes. A great impres-
sion in favor of the Jesuit fathers was made upon all
classes by this course of conduct. In humanity,
self-denying assiduity, and Christian zeal, they had
immeasurably surpassed any who might have pre-
tended rivahy with them.

It was now, therefore, that Loyola sought from
the pontiff that formal recognition which his per-
sona! assurances of regard and approval seemed to
show he could not refuse. Paul III. was, however?
cautious in this instånce, and seemed unwilling to
commit himself and the church, at this critical
moment, except so far as he knew himself to be
supported by the feeling and opinion of those of the
cardinals whom he most regarded. He referred
Loyola's petition to three of them. The first of
these was Barthelemi Guidiccioni, who had often
declared himself to be decisively opposed to the
multiphcation of religions orders. The church, he
thought, had too many of these excrescences al-
ready ; and instead of adding another to the num-
ber, he would gladly have reduced them all to four.

EARLY TIME OP THE SOCIETY. 147

His two coUeagues were easily induced to concur
with him in this opinioa ; and thus it appeared as
if the infant society, notwithstanding the advances
it had lately made in securing the good opinion of
persons of high rank, as well as in winning popular
applause, was little likely to receive what was in-
dispensable to its permanent estabUshment — a papal
buli in its favor.

Personally, however, the pope did not conceal his
cordial feeling toward Loyola and his companions :
he seems to have perceived clearly that these men,
resolute in their punctiiious adherence to the doc-
trine and ritual of the church, and committed by
the most solemn engagements to its service — deep-
purposed as they were, fuU of a well-governed en-
ergy, resolute in the performance of the most ar-
duous duties, and, moreover, highly accomplished
in secular and sacred learning, were the very in-
stmments which the church had need of in this
crisis of its fate. Northern Europe was irrecovera-
bly lost — Germany and Switzerland were held to
Catholicism at points only; while France and
northern Italy were listening to the seductions of
heresy. — Scarcely could it be said, even of Spain,
that it was clear of the same infection. The
church ought, then, at such a moment, to embrace
cordially, and by all means to favor, the efforts of
men like Loyola and his distinguished companions.

It was with this feeling that Paul III., while
held back by his aU visers from the course he would
have adopted, went as far as he could in promoting
and extending the influence of the Society. At the
same moment application had been made, on the

148 IGNATITJS LOYOLA.

part of several poten tates, for the services of the
Fathers, who had already gained a high reputation
at the courts near to which they had exercised their
ministry. It was seen and understood by pf inces
that these were the men — and these almost alone —
to whom might be confided those arduous tasks
which the perib of the times continually presented :
none so well-fumished as these fathers — none so
self-denying and laborious — none so uncompromis-
ing in the maintenance of their principles. They
were therefore despatched, in various directions, and
with the papal sanction, to undertake ofiices, more
or less spiritual, and in some instances purely secu-
lar. It was thus that a commen cement was made
in that course, which has thrown unlimited power
into the hånds of the Society, and which again
has brought upon it suSpicion, hatred, and reiterated
ruin.

But the most noted of these appointments was
that which, in sending, as by an accident, Francis
Xavier to India, detached from the Jesuit Society
the man who, had he remained at home, must have
imparted his own character to its con stitutions, and
have guided its movements, and who probably would
have dislodged Loyola from the generalship, and
have held Lainez and Faber in a subordinate posi-
tion. Not merely did Xavier's departure allow
Jesuitism to take its fotm from the hånd of these
three, but it conferred upon the Society, from a very
early date, the incalculable advantage of that re-
flected power and reputation which the Indian mis-
sions secured for it. Xavier's apostleship in the
East, with its real and with its romantic and exag-

EARLY TIME OF THE SOCIETY. 149

gerated glories, was a fund, upon which the Society
at home allowed itself to draw without limit If it
be admitted that Xavier effected something real for
Christianity in pagan India, it may be afiirmed that
he accomplished, at the same time, though indi-
rectly, far more for Jesuitism throughout Europe.
Tbis course of events, so signal in its consequences,
as favoring the development and rapid extension of
the Jesuit scheme throughout Christendom, and
which yet could not be attributed to any forethought
or machination on the part of Loyola, is well de-
serving of a distinct notice. *.

The train of circumstances, as related and af-
firmed by the Jesuit writers, excludes the supposi-
tion of its taking its rise in any plot or intention.
John III. of Portugal — a religions prince — had long
entertained the project of stretching the empire of
the church over those regions which his valiant and
enterprising people were subjecting to his secular
sway. In modern phtaseology, he piously desired
to consecrate his military triumphs in the East, by
spreading the gospel among the subjugated heathen.
His royal wish and intention had become known to
Loyola's friend Grovea, who wrote to him from Paris
on the subject. This letter was as a spark at contact
with which Loyola's zeal burst forth in a flame. He
replied, however, that as he and his companions had
now solemnly surrendered themselves to the abso-
lute and unconditional disposal of the vicar of Christ,
they could attempt nothing spontaneously. It is
easy to imagine how speedily this declaration, con-
veyed to Govea, would produce its effect, would
come round to its destination, and would assume the

150 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

form of a pontifical injunction, addressed to Loyola,
to despatch some of the Fathers to the court of
John, there to await the pleasure of so religious a
prince. Six missionaries had been asked for. Lo-
yola, with the consent of the pope, assigned two —
Rodriquez and Bobadilla — to his service. The lat-
ter however falling ill — so it is affinned — Francis
Xavier was appointed in this place. Xavier, it is
said, leaped for joy wheh summoned, at a moment,
to set out toward Portugal, with commission — to
convert India to the Christian faith ! A few hours
suflficed ffcr his preparations : by noon of the next
day he had sewed the tatters of his attire with his
own hånd, had packed his bund le, had bid adieu to
his friends, and was forward on the road to Lisbon.
Upon this desperate enterprise he set forward with
his eye steadily fixed upon objects far more remote
and more dazzling than the sunny plains of Hiu-
dostan. The immeasurable difficulty of his mis-
sion was to him its excitement ; its dangers bright-
ened in his view into martyrdom — its toils were to
be his ease — its privations his solace, and despair
the aliment of his hope. But at this initial poiut
of his course we must take leave of Francis Xavier
— the prince of missionaries. Bobadilla, with Lo-
yola's consent, remained in Portugal, where his zeal
found scope enough.

At length, but it doeé not appear in what man-
ner this change of opinion had been brought about,
Cardinal Guidicciani professed himself favorable to
the suit of Loyola ; probably an Qxhanced convic-
tion that the Romish hierarchy was encountering a
peril which cailed for extraordinary measures, and

EARLY TIME OF THE SOCIETY. 161

that the new order was likely to meet the occasion,
had prevailed over considerations less urgent and
of a more general kind. This opponent gained,
no obstacle remained to be overcome. On the 3rd
of October, 1540 (or 27th September), was issued
the bull which gave ecclesiastical existence to the
new order, under the name of The Company of
Jesus. At the first the Society was forbidden to ad-
mit more than sixty professed members ; but, three
years later, another bull removed entirely this re-
siriction.

The time was now come when the decisive step
must be taken which should enable the new insti-
tute to realize its intention — which should render
Jesnitism — Jesuitism indeed. This was the elec-
tion of a chief individually, who thenceforward
should be absolute lord of the bodies and souls, the
will and well-being, of all the members. Until this
election should be made and ratified, the society
was a project only ; it would then become a dread
reality.

Those of the Fathers who could leave their func-
tions at foreign courts — ^and these were three only —
were summoned to Rome; those who could not
attend there, sent forward their votes. But in what
nianner are we to deal with the account that is
presented to us of that which took place on this
occasion ? How is it to be made to consist either
with the straightforwardness and simpUcky of inten-
tion that are the characteristics of great and noble
natures ; or how with those maxims of guileless-
ness which Christianity so much approvcs? The
problem admits of only a partial and unsatisfactory

152 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

solution ; nor can we advemce even so far as this,
unless we make a very large allowance in favor of
Loyola, personally, on ihe ground of the ill-influ-
ence of the system within which he had received his
moral and religious training. A principle of 'facti-
tiousness is deep-seated in the Romish scheme of
sanctity. It is afalseness which it inherited from
the church-asceticism of an earlier age. Whenever
extravagance and exaggeration come to be generally
practised, and to be universally admired, pre tension
and spuriousness are sure to foUow, and to become
a plague-spot upon the garment of sanctity. Un-
der such a system, when time has fixed upon it its
characteristics, while there will alwa)^s be many
truly sincere and honest men, yet nothing will exist
that is in itself thoroughly sincere and honest.
liOyola, in the instance before us, conducted him-
self after the fashion of bis church : this must be
his apology.

It was he, unquestionably, who had conceived the
primary idea of the society. He was author of
the book which constitutes its germ and law — ^the
Spiritual Exercises : he had been principal in di-
gesting the constitutions, or actual code, of the
Society. It was he, individually, whom the others
had always regarded as their leader and teacher.
His influence, personally, was the cement which
held the parts in union. It was Loyola who, while
his colleagues dispersed themselves throughout Eu-
rope, remained at Rome, there to manage the com-
mon interests of all, and to carry forward those
negotiations with the papal court which were of
vital importance, and of the highest difficulty. In

HIS ELECTION. 153

a word, it was he who had convoked this meeting
to elect a chief, and who asked the proxies of the
absent. Are we then to believe tbat this bold spirit
— this far-seeing mind, this astute, inventive, and
politio Ignatius, born to rule other minds, and able
always to subjugate his own will — that this con-
triver of a despotism, after having carried the prin-
ciple of unconditional obedience — after having won
the consent of his companions to the proposal that
their master sbould be their master for life — are we
to beUeve that he had never imagined it as probable,
much less wished, that the choice of his compeers
should fali upon himself, or that he had peremptorily
resolved, in such a case, to reject the proffered sov-
ereignty ? Surely those writers, the champions of
the Society, use us cruelly who demand that we
should beUeve so much as this.

Le Jay, Brouet, Lainez, and Loyola were those
who personally appeared on this occasion. The
absent members sent their votes in sealed letters.
Three days having been passed in prayer and si-
lence, the four assembled on the fourth day, when
the votes were ascertained. All but Loyola's own
were in his fa vor ; he voted for the one who should
carry the majority of votes.

Loyola, we are told, was in an equal degree dis-
tressed and amazed in discovering what was the
mind of his colleagues. He^ indeed, to be general
of the Society of Jesus ! — how Strange and prepos-
terous a supposition ! Positively he could think of
no such thing. What a life had he led before his
conversion! How abounding in weaknesses had
been his course since ! How could he aspire to rule

154 lONATIUS LOYOLA.

others, who eo poorly could mie himself ! Days of
prayer must yet be devoted to the purpose of im-
ploring the divine aid, in directing the minds of all
toward one who should indeed be qualified for so
arduous an ofiice. At the end of this term Loyola
was a second time elected, and again refused to com-
ply with the wishes of his friends. He would
barely admit their importunities ; they could scarce-
ly bring themselves to listen to his contrary reas-
ons. Time passed on, and there seemed a danger
lest the Society should go adrift upon the rocks,
even in its first att^mpt to reach deep water. At
length Loyola agreed to submit himself to the
direction of his confessor. He might thus, perhaps,
find it possible to thrust himself through his scruples
by the loophole of passive obedience, for he already
held himself bound to comply with the injunctions
of his spiritual guide, be they what they might.

This good man, therefore — a Father Theodosius
of the communion of Minor Brethren— is constitu-
ted arbiter of the destinies of the Society of Jesus.
To his ear Loyola confides all the reasons, irresisti-
ble as they were, which forbade his compliance with
the will of his friends. The confessor listens pa-
tiently to the long argument, but sets the whole of
it at nought. In a word, he declares that Loyola,
in declining the proffered generalship, is fighting
against God. Further resistance whould have been
a flagrant impiety, and he, in making himself mas-
ter of the bodies and souls — ^the mind and con-
science — of all who should yield themselves to his
hånd, contrives, by an easy artifice, to preserve a
øpurious modesty from violation.

HIS ELECTION. 155

The installation of the general was carried for-
ward in a course of services held in the seven prin-
cipal churches of Rome, and with extraordinary
solemnity in the church of St. Paul, without the
city, April 23, 1541. On this occasion, the vows of
peipetual poverty, chastity, and obedience were re-
newed before the altar of the Virgin, where Loyola
administered the communion to his brethren, they
having vowed absolute obedience to him, and he
the saine to the pope.

That this formal inauguration of the Society took
place before the altar of the Virgin, and was sanc-
tioned by a solemn appeal to her as its patron di-
vinity, is a circumstance that might easily pass un-
noticed. The same appeal had frequently been
made on previous occasions — in truth, upon every
signal occasion. Jesuitism is " our lady's institute,"
and with the worship of the Virgin the order is
inextricably connected. In various instances Lo-
yola proved himself to be gifted with a far-reaching
sagacity ; but it does not appear that he had allowed
himself to anticipate a time when the maintenance
throughout Europe of a superstition so recent in
its rise, and so palpably idolatrous, should no longer
be possible. It is not easy to imagine what shift
the Society will have recourse to when, in all
countries that are ploughed by the railway — the foe
of eveiy local absurdity — men in very «hame, and
the priest not less eager to do so tban the layman,
shall remove from churches and from the comera
of streets the trinket-bedizened doll to whicb, so
long as it stands there, they must pay a degrading
obeisance.

CHAPTER VII.

LOYOLA's GOVERNMENT OF THE SOClETY.

LoYOLA commenced his administration as Gen-
eral of the Company of Jesus, by establishing the
most exact order in its house — the conventual house,
which was now to be the centre of govemment to
the Society. He himself excelled as an economist.
This faculty and accomplishment has been a char-
acteristic of most founders of orders, and chiefs of
sects. In this preliminary and important labor he
was assisted by an able coadjutor — Peter Codasius,
an ecclesiastic, and an officer of the papal court,
who, having become the disciple of Loyola, had
abandoned his preferments and appointment«, and,
devoting himself entirely to the duties with which
he charged himself, as administrator of the secular
interests of the Society, acted as almoner, purveyor,
and steward of the house of residence. It was,
moreover, by his means, that the first church was
erected which the Society could call its own, and
which was solemnly dedicated to the Yirgin.

In carrying forward those domestic arrangements
which seemed essential to the welfare of the com-
munity, Loyola not merely allotted to each his
duty, but he set an example of humility and obedi-
ence by sometimes personally discharging menial
Offices in the kitchen. The General himself might,

HIS GOVERNMENT OF THE 80CIETY. 157

at times, be seen busy and reeking in the scullion's
place ! In a word, he showed to all what was his un-
derstanding of the doctrine he taught — that a per-
fect charity includes all virtues, and especially the
virtue of absolute submissiveness, and an indiffer-
ence to humiliations the most extreme. Love resents
nothing but pride, impatience, or selfishness. Peace
therefore reigned in a house thus govemed; the
General exhibiting consummate skill in the treat*
ment of all tempers, and mingling firraness and
force with suavity and affection in a manner which
no hearts could resist.

Meantime those offices which were more purely
spiritual occupied the greater part of his time. Pri-
vately he was resorted to by multitudes, seeking his
aid as a skilful physician of souls ; and often were
difficult cases of obduracy and of moral depravity
brought to him by parents and guardians ; more-
over, he was very firequently called upon to restore
to soundness in the faith those who had become
tainted with the epidemic heresies of the times.

As a preacher also he labored incessantly, and
with great effect, and this notwithstanding his de-
ficiencies as an orator, and the extreme rudeness of
his style and articulation in using the Italian lan-
guage. But in a mode more direct than that of
nicely modulated tones, or of phrases classically
correct, Loyola brought the souls of his hearers into
close contact with his own. Perhaps even when
the general pufport or drift only of his discourse
was understood by them — ^when his foreign accent,
and his utterly mischosen idioms hung as a veil be-
tween the preacher'i^ mind and the minds of the

158 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

hearers, the effulgence of soul beamed with scarcely
diminished brightness through that medium, and
conveyed heaven's fire from the one heart to the
hearts of all. Thus perhaps it had been with him
whose " bodily presence was weak and bis speech
contemptible." Loyola's hearers, if they but haif
caught the logic of his periods, caught entire the
solemn intensity of his persuasion that the '^ things
unseen and eternal" are real and true. Preaching
produces like elfects as often as it is prompted by a
like fuU conviction.

This " methodist" of catholicism at Rome and in
the sixteenth century might have been found fault
with as the author of irregularities precisely similar
to those which have marked the course of like-
minded preachers in modem times, and among our-
selves. But the Church of Rome has never been
jealous of disorders that did not seem to threaten
her own authority. Protestant churches, on the
contrary, have lost ground among the people, and
have forgone their prerogatives, by indulging a fas-
tidious repugnance toward whatever revolted an
aristocratic taste in matters of religion. Protestant
churches have grudged salvation when dealt out to
the people in their own style. Rome has been far
less nice.

Whén Loyola commenced his seniion, a breath-
less silence reigned through the church ; as he went
on there was perceptible a pressure toward the pul-
pit ; sighs soon became audible on évery side ; then
these sighs swelled into sobs, and sobs into groans.
Some fdl on the pavement as if lifeless. Once and
again an obdurate oflFender — hitherto obdurate —

PROGRESS OF THE SOCIETY. 159

push^d forward, threw himself at the feet of the
preacher as be left the pulpit, and with convulsive
etruggles made a loud confession of his crimes.
Men from every class of society, and not exclusive
of dignified ecclesiastics, were numbered among
these conquests of preaching in earnest.

The pontifical restriction above referred to, and
which had confined the Society to sixty members,
having been withdrawn, through Loyola's importu-
nities, accessions were made to it perpetually.
Moreover the farne of these Fathers'spread as in a
moment throughout Catholic Europe. It was said
everjnvhere that, whatever might be the function
with which these devoted men charged themselves
— and whether spiritual or secular, they were al-
ways successful — they failed in nothing ; they went
beyond their engagements ; they were trustworthy
agents ; they were prudent and safe advisers ; they
taught children with the happiest effect ; they in-
structed princes for peace or war. At an early
time, therefore, after the formal establishment of
the order, schools, c(^eges, the consciences of states-
men and the closets of kings, were placed at the
disposal of the General. Deputations reached Rome
from remote quarters, the object of which was to
obtain the aid of one or more of the Fathers in
some service of peculiar difficulty.

These requisitions, which the General could ae-
cede to only with a sort of parsimony that enhanced
the value of his compliance, opened an easy road
to the Society in whichsoever direction he might
wish it to advance. Houses of the order were estab-
lished in difierent countries — in faet wherever it

160 lONATIUS LOYOLA.

was thought advantageous to gain a footing for it.
Every such house became, of course, a centre of
extensive influence, and drew toward itself a multi-
tude of candidates for membership, among whom
the General, constantly and exactly informed as he
was of the qualifications and dispositions of every
aspirant, might freely select those whom he deemed
the most likely to serve the Society in its own man-
ner, and on its own terms. It was in this mode,
and by this means chiefly that the Jesuit order
secured its early and unexampled successes.

Houses of the Order of Jesus had, within a few
years, been founded and placed upon a firm basis
in different parts of Spain, Portugal, France, Ger-
many, Italy, Sicily, and India ; and in a short time
the General held in his hånd the wires of a machine
moving with little friction and no noise, and which
stretched itself nearly over the entire area then
covered by the Romish Church, and at some points
it extended beyond that limit. It was a machine
that was new in its contrivance, firesh as to its ma-
terials, close in its fittings, nowhere worn, and which
WjBis kept in motion by the volitions of a single mind.
Loyola's utmost ambition now seemed likely to be
reaUzed; his power over the spirits of men was
rapidly surpassing and supplanting that of the head
of the church : if Pharaoh still sat on the throne, it
was Joseph who administered the affairs of the
kingdom. We are compelled to seek within the
Jesuit Institute itself for the causes of that failure
which has belied the omens of so auspicious a com-
mencement.

Provincials having been appointed in all Catholic

HIS ADMINISTRATION. 161

countries, through whom the (Jeneral kept himself
conscious of whatever concerned the interests of the
Church and the Order throughout Europe — for these
provincials employed their emissaries in all direc-
tions — he himself, in virtue of his position as head
of a religions order, took a seat in ecclesiastical
council chambers, and was always cognizant of
whatever was propounded, or decreed, with a view
to the spread and maintenance of the Romish
faith.

Within the city itself Loyola not merely labored
as a preacher and pastor, but promoted various re-
forms, municipal and ecclesiastical, and founded
several charitable institutions. These endeavors to
do good exhibit, with a sort of alternation, the pre-
dominence, in his mind, of an eager ovei*weening
zeal, and of great natural sagacity. His early
course had shown this same reaction — this oscilla-
tion, produced between the vehemence of his emo-
tions on the one side, and the clearness and energy
of his understanding on the other.

The almost universal practice of dissolute per-
sons in deferring confession to the last hour, when
the sincerity of repentance could not be proved,
gave him great uneasiness ; and with the hope of
inducing such persons to ^* repent" a little earlier, he
obtained leave to revive and to enforce an obsolete
decretal, forbidding the attendance of a physician
until the priest had duly cohfessed and absolved
the sick. The fatal consequences, and indeed the
Uttei impiacticability, of such a regulation soon be-
came manifest, and sorae relaxation of so barbarous
a law was called for.add permitted. Twice the

162 lONATIUS LOYOLA.

sick might be visited, iinconfessed — but not a third
time.

At his instance also regulations were adopted,
favoring, as he imagined, what has been caUed —
" the conversion of the Jews," very many of whom
were at that time resident at Rome. The means
resorted to were as efficacious as such means have
usually proved, in other hånds, when employed with
the same charitable intention, of leaving a side door
ajar into the church from the synagogue.

In each instance in which we find Loyola enact-
ing regulations, or founding establishments for the
benefit of women, there is apparent in the course
he takes a sound discretion, and a peculiar firmness
of purpose. These instances exhibit a fixed unity
of principle, and we may safely infer from the facts
that he had deliberately forecast the occasions that
were likely to present themselves in carrying for-
ward his great design ; and that he had digested,
with due care, the measures which he should adopt
as often as such instances occurred. He had played
his part as a man of the world long enough to rid
himself of those illusions which might have misled
a cell-bred religions legislator. Loyola well knew
mankind, and he knew womankind ; and again he
knew mankind in this relationship : his conduct in
all instances therewith connected shows, not merely
(aa we should undoubtedly assume) that the holy
Ignatius was master always of the gallant Loyola,
but what is far more — that the politic and clear-
sighted Loyola had gained an habitual ascendency
over Iguatius — the empassioned devotee.

Houses of refiige liad hitherto been open for

HIS ADMINISTRATION. 163

female penitents only on the condition that those
who abandoned a vicious course should renounce,
not vice merely, but the world, and should thence-
forward bury themselves in a convent. Loyola, with
a wise forbearance, opened the doors of the peniten-
tiary which he estabUshed to aU who desired to re-
form their lives, with Uberty of return to the world
and to their families.

There was yet a point which, in his view, touched
vitally the interests, the influence, and the perpetuity
of his order, and it was brought before him in an
urgent manner by circumstances occurring not long
after the time of his formal entrance upon his fiinc-
tions as General of the Society.

At the time of his departure from Spain to pursue
his studies at Paris, he had accepted a purse, as we
have already said, from a noble matron of Barcelo-
na, named Isabel Rosella. This lady had reached
mature age at that time, but was perhaps of ardent
temperament; and she had continued to regard her
saintly countryman with feelings of profound admi-
ration. At the time of which we are now speak-
ing, and which must have been nearly twenty years
after the period of her early acquaintance with him,
the new order, spoken of with wonder throughout
Europe, had, as was natural, attracted peculiar re-
gard in Spain. The lady Rosella was not likely
to listen with indifference to reports conceming the
sanctity and far-spreading influence of the man
whom she had befriended. Her resolution was
quickly formed, and as speedily foUowed up, to re-
pair to Rome. She- was accompanied, or was
joined there by two pious ladies, who determined

164 lONATIUS LOYOLA.

to risk themselves with her in this religious adven-
ture.

It was with grateful courtesy that Loyola wel-
comed the lady to whose benevolence he had been
so much indebted in years gone by ; but she now
asked in return more than he could, in conscience,
grant. At first, indeedj he yielded so far to her im-
portunities as to undertake in some sort the spiritual
oversight of the three ladies who had resolved to re-
tire from the world, and to devote themselves to a
religious life in immediate connection with the So-
ciety. Very quickly, however, he repented of this
compliance. The control and direction of three
woirien gave him, he said, more trouble than the
government of a society which had now spread
itself over the surface of Europe. Daily, and often-
times in a day, was he summoned by these ladies
to resolve their scruples, to listen to their petulant
complaints ; sometimes even to dissipate their mu-
tual jealousies, and to give some sort of reply to a
hundred inane questions.

But this was not all. He could not doubt that,
instead of a devout three^ a not less devout nine
would ere long make similar demands upon his
skill and time, and that this niiie would draw to
itself other nines, until a spacious house would not
hold them all. Besides, what might take place at
Rome would surely and soon be imitated in all
piaces where the Society had established itself;
and, as an inevitable consequence, its members,
diverted from the great purposes to which they had
dedicated themselves, would become — what so many
of the existing orders had become — triflers at the

HIS ADMINISTRATION. l65

best, br causes of scandal in the eyes of the world.
But the lady Rosella was not to be easily shaken
off. The General declared that he fbund himself
already overburdened with cares : it was impossible
for him to pay due attention to the spiritual welfare
of herself and her companions : his health too was
infirm, and his mind oppressed. She would listen
to no excuses ; she had come to Rome for the very
purpose of spending her remaining years in religious
exercises, under his auspices ; she reminded him of
her claims upon his gratitude; — hard lot of the
woman who, whatever may be her suit, is driven
to have recourse to this plea, fatal as it is to her
wishes when so employed! Loyola showed him-
self inflexible : the lady therefore turned away from
him to meditate other means of aecomplishing her
purpose. She had connections at the papal court,
and through these channels she at length won the
ear of the sovereign pontiff, and so far prevailed
with him as to induce him to challenge the Gen-
eral's professed implicit obedience, and he was com-
manded to undertake the spiritual care of Rosella
and her companions. He meekly complied for the
moment ; but Ignatius Loyola was not the man to
be so easily thrown out of the course which he had
chosen for himself.

He first armed himself for the occasion by fasting
and prayer ; and then, with the humblest and most
fervent entreaties, approached the foot of the pope ;
there he so pleaded his cause, and so represented
the ruinous consequences that impended over the
Society, as to convince the Holy Father that the
injunction which he had just issued must be with-

166 I6NATIUS LOYOLA.

drawn. It was withdrawn, and tbe Jesuits were
formally excused from the obligation to direct or to
govem communities of women, while still free to
take upon themselves the function of confessors in
individual cases, and where the reasons for so doing
should be sufficient. The Society attributes its
preservation and its successes, in no small degree?
to the exemption thus obtained from a not merely
burdensome, but perilous line of duty.

A new and more serious danger soon preseuted
itself, and one from which Loyola's utmost exer-
tions hardly availed to rescue the Society. This
arose from the proffer of high ecclesiastical digni-
ties to the more noted of the Fathers, on the part
of several Catholic princes. The clear-sighted
General instantly perceived that, if once one of his
colleagues was allowed to accept a bishopric, and if
such preferment was seen to be the reward of emi-
nent abiUty, of high accomplishments, and of ex-
alted piety, he should no longer hold in his band
the hearts, or command the services, of any in whose
bosoms there Ungered a spark of worldly ambition.
In a word, the Society would instantly come to be
regarded by those within it, and by tbose without
it, as a broad road-way to mitres and emoluments ;
and then it must quickly cease, not merely to fulfil
its high intention, but must cease even to subserve
this lower purpose. With the whole energy of his
soul, therefore, did Loyola oppose himseif to the
first instance of an offered episcopate.

Yet it was no easy matter to resist the bursting
open of a door at which kings and theu* courts were
thundering to gain admission. The more intelli-

HIS ADMINISTRATION. 167

gent of the Catholic princes had at length fully con-
vinced themselves that the perils of the times de-
manded a new system to be pursued in the bestow-
ment of church preferments. Men of another stamp
than heretofore must now be sought for and secured
wherever they might be found, and promoted to the
highest dignities, notwithstanding the murmurs and
envy of disappointed sycophants. It was a season
in which; whatever was unreal, inert, inept, must be
set aside, and the vacancy filled by those whose
qualities and accomphshments the mass of the peo-
pie would accept as the fit accompaniments of high
rank in ihe church. Lutheranism and Calvinism
must be refuted and withstood, not so much by the
stern measures with which the holy office charged
itself, as by the natural and kindly influence of
the learning, assiduity, disinterestedness, self-de-
nial, and irreproachable personal virtue of the men
who were to represent and sustain the Romish faith
and worship. But to find such men in the bosom
of the Church, at that time, was in the extremest
degree difficult. The new order of Jesuits alone
possessed such men, and it was withiri its pale only
that they could be met with. Several^f the Fathers
had already established themselves in the high re-
gard of the princes with whom they had to do.

The first instance in which this difficulty pre-
sented itself was that which occurred when Ferdi-
nand, king of the Romans, offered the bishopric of
Trieste to Claude le Jay. Now therefore was tobe
decided the question whether henceforward men of
mixed motives or of sinister intentions should be
tempted to simulate Jesuit-like devotedness, as a

168 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

means of reaching their selfish ends, and whether
the Fathers who had won for themselves an un-
bounded influence over the mass of the people, as
preachers of Christian heroism, and by practising the
contempt of ease, honor, and wealth, should forfeit
all, as in a moment, by showing that themselves,
whenever they could do so, were willing enough to
take a seat among princes, where they might fare
sumptuously everyday. Loyola instantly resolved
that this question should be determined in his own
manner. Yet all were against him — kings, cardi-
nals, the pope himself, along with every subordinate
of the papal court — all — save his coUeagues, if in-
deed they were, all of tjiem, thoroughly of his mind.
He was borne forward, however, not merely by the
natural force of a will of extraordinary tenacity,
but by a clear, undisturbed, intellectual grasp of the
simple idea of a purely spiritual and universal mon-
archy. This idea he had pursued from almost the
first steps of his religions course ; — he had at length
overtaken it ; — he had fully made it his own ; — he
had considered and matured whatever bore upon
the realization of it, and, in reliance upon the di-
vine aid, he now proposed to carry it safe in his
arms through these new perils.

Le Jay had resolutely refused the proffered dig-
nity ; but Ferdinand, giving little heed to what he
perhaps regarded as an assumed reluctance, ap-
pealed to the pope, urging his cause with arguments
which appeared to be of irresistible force. The
pope yielded to these persuasions, and the cardinals
unanimously gave their approval of Le Jay's elec-
tion to the bishopric, — ^some not unwilling to find

mS ADMINISTRATION. 169

an occasion for doihg king Ferdinand a pleasure,
others influenced by the obvious and legitimate rea-
sons that a man so eminent should be placed in a
position where, for the interests of the Church, the
highest qualifications were cailed for. Some, per-
haps, who had never been cordially affected toward
the new order, saw as clearly as did the General,
wh$it would be the effect upon its interests of the
proposed elevation of one of the Society, and there-
fore desired, in this indirect but effectual manner,
to bring about its ruin.

Loyola now felt that his mighty scheme had
reached a moment when its fate must be decided ;
and he saw that all influences were against him.
He sought an interview with his holiness, and
spread before him those reasons which in faet were
valid, and which should at once have been yielded
to, if indeed it was intended to perpetuate, for the
good of the Church at large, the inestimable bene-
fits which the Jesuits were seen to be securing for
it. It could not be doubted that the spirit of this
institution would be at once broken up, and the
whole intensity of its energies relaxed, if only in a
single instance a bishopric were accepted, as a re-
ward of his merits, by a Jesuit Father. The pope,
however, continued to be unmoved by these represen-
tatiohs, either because he was incapable of perceiv-
ing the truth and importance of them, or because
he was not in a position to thwart the vehemently-
urged wishes of Ferdinand.

In this emergency the General took the course
which the confessors of princes are likely to take,
as often as their necessities may seem to require.

8

170 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

Heapplied himseif to Margaret of Åtistria, Duchess
of Parma, who had already shown favor to the
Society, and liad named Loyola as her cobfessor.
By her intervention some delay in effecting the iu-
vestiture of Le Jay was obtained, and the General
employed th^ interval of time in urging his reasooe
upon Ferdinand. This prince was at length con-
vinced that, to persist, would be unwise ; abandon-
ing his project, the court of Rome yielded of course,
and thus a peril the most extreme was avoided.
^ Solemn thanksgivings were offered by the Society
on this signal occasion.

To affirm that this abnegation of ambition, in its
more ordinary forms, was regarded by Loyola and
his colleagues as the means necessary for giving
scope to an ambition — extraordinary and unbound-
ed, would be an easy mode of laying open the mo-
tives of his eamestness on this occasion. It may
be thought that he might cheaply spurn bishoprics
for himseif, and for his foUowers, while contriving,
for their benefit, and for his own, a despotism that
should grasp the world ! Such an exphcation of
the facts may seem obvious and natural, and it
would readily be accepted by those, on the one
hånd, who wish by all means to disparage Jesuit-
ism, and its author ; and, on the other, by persons
of sardonic temperament, whose pleasure it is to
mock at human nature. Meantime those who ex-
amine Loyola's character more calmly and atten-
tively wiU be slow to accept any such supposition.
His master-motive was not $>f the kind to which the
epithet ambition can with propriety be applied. A
great idea had j)ossessed itself of his mind : he pur-

HIS ADAONISTRATION. 171

sucd it with a consistent and vehemenl inteDsity ; —
he rejected whalever he felt to be of incongruous
quality ; he discerned, at a glance, every adverse
influence, and turaed it aside : — all was harmony
and unison in his conception of the Jesuit Institute ;
how then could he tolerate or accept what he felt
to be dissonant, or knew to be destructive ? It was
not therefore a cloaked ambition, if the word is to.
carry its ordinary meaning, that impelled Loyola to
refuse ecclesiastical dignities. He did so that he
might hold his principle intact.

It was about the same time that the General de-
voted himself to the task of digesting anew the
constitutions of the Society. These constitutions,
forming as they do, its professed code, demand a
more exact attention than can be given them while
pursuing the personal history of their author. It
was a principle with him — and who must not ap-
prove it ? — on évery arduous occasion to exert his
natural ability of mind and body with all possible
energy, as if no di vine aid or guidance were to be
looked for; and then, having done so, and while
thus employed, to seek that aid and guidance with
a simple fervor, and an absolute reliance, as if
human faculties of intelligence and power were
wholly inapplicable to the work in hånd. It was
in this spirit, and in adherence to this mie, that he
now once again undertook to revise the laws of the
Society, and to append to them thoee explicatory
notes which form a running commentary upon the
text. In the calm exercise of his natural good
sense he fiist considered every point, weighing the
reasons that presented themselves in favor of each

172 IGNATIUS LOYaLA.

enactment, and the contrary ; and at length, and
not until afteF days, or weeks of deliberation, he
permitted himself to reach a conditional conclusion.
For, evea when this was done, a half only of the
process had been gone through with which he
deemed necessary, before the matter in question
could be dismissed as finally determined. This
after-process was altogether devotional. With fer-
vent prayer and faeting, and through the entreated
intercession of the Virgin, he sought that illumina-
tion which should enable him to reconsider what he
had done, as it appeared when seen in the light of
eternal trath. When in that light the labors of
natural reason stood approved, they were accepted
as good and genuine. Each article of the constitu-
tions was then solemnly laid upon the altar, and
presented to the Divine Majesty, along with the
tremendous sacrifice of the mass. How sure should
those be that they are making an appeal to heaven
which heaven approves, when they intend to affix
heaven's seal to the product of their own minds !
Loyola did not permit himself' for a moment to
doubt that each of the constitutions of the order of
Jesus had been divinely authénticated !

Jesuit establishments were now rapidly forming
in the principal cities of Catholic Europe, those of
France excepted, where the new order, being of
Spanish origin, and regarded as intended covertly
to promote designs which were not purely religions,
was held in little esteem. Moreover, the uncom-
promising subserviency of the Socicty to the court
of Rome, would not be a recommendation in the
eyes of the French people or clergy. Besides, the

PR0GRBS8 jOF THE SOCIETY. 173

Germaa and Swiss refgrmation, even where its
principles were professedly rejected, had, in a silent
manne r, wrought itself into the convictions of the
more thoughtful portion of the people, and had
created a feeling quite at variance with that which
animated the members of the Jesuit oider*

Individuals indeed there were, of the French na-
tion, who had caught the Jesuit feeling, and who
had eagerly placed themselves at the disposal of the
General. Among these William Postel was sig-
nalized by his extraordinary accomplishments, his
various learning, and the extravagances of his after
course. For a moment he had been attracted by
the fresh energy that distinguished the Society;
but Jesuitism could have no lasting charms for a
man whose individuality was so strongly marked,
and whose words and actions must be alway^ his
own. Both parties soon convinced themselves, and
each other, that there could be no agreement be-
tween them. He was quickly expelled the Society
which had too hastily admitted him; itself, per-
haps, at this early period, too eager to secure talents
of all kinds, and not fuUy understanding how to
apply its own first principle to particular instances
— That it could avail itself of none of those energies
of the intellectual or moral world which, in their
very nature, must take their spring from the mind
and heart of the individual man. Jesuitism has
produced ao very few men who have commended
themselves to the cordial regards of mankind at
large, because it represses, or excludes, or destroys,
that pure spontan eousness — that clearly expressed
individuality, apart from which the individual man

174 lOlfATIUS libYOLA.

can never draw to bimself .the affectionate admira-
tion of his fellows.

Called up<ni by Paul III. to select two of the So^
ciety to repair to the Council of Trent, as theo-
logens, attendant upon the pope's legates, be fixed
upon Lainez and Salmeron,* both of them young
men, but eminently g^fted for such a service, and
who had each of them, in his sphere of labor, be-
come a skilled combatant in the controversies of the
times. In the instructions wiiich the General ad-
dressed to these delegates, were included, not merely,
as we should naturaUy suppose, exhortations to
modesty of deportment, and an adherence to truth
and charity in what they might advance in their
piaces, but an admonition not to neglect, while
giving due attendance in the council^ those labors
of Christian benevolence to which their profession
bound them. They were to frequent the hospitals
of the city, to teach the young, and to preach re-
pentance among the common people. It was thus
that, while discharging a high function tending to
inflate them with self-importance, they might hope
to maintain a due humility, and an evangelic fer-
vor. If this fervor were chilled, and this humble-
ness of mind damaged or lost, no service they might
render in the council, as accomplished theologians,
could be regarded by themselves with any satisfac-
tion, or would be productive of lasting good effects.
It was with a lively pleasure that the Greneral re-
ceived reports from time to time, not merely of the
able conduct of the three Fathers in the council, but

* The nameof Claude le Jay appears in the list of those present.
He attended as theologian for the Bishop of Augsberg.

PROORESS OP THE SOCIETY. 175

of their adherence to the course of conduct he had
prescribed to th^m out of it : they labored wilh un-
abated assiduity among the sick, the poor, the ig-
norant^ and themselves subsisted upon the alms
which they meekly asked, from day to day, of the
charitable.

As to the course ihey were to pursue in the coun-
cil, and especially in relation to i:)pinions broached
there by eminent persons, and sustained by weighty
arguments, by citations from the fathers, and by
passages of Holy Scripture, Loyola enjoined upon
them, in niost peremptory terms, an exact ad-
herence to the decisions of the Church, as already
understood. Strong reasons — ^nay, reasons irresist-
ibly strong, although they may make an opinion
probable, do not make it Catholic ; and, therefore,
do not avail to recommend it, in any degree, to our
approval or acceptance. No admission, therefore,
should be made, even of the most indirect kind,
which might seem to indicate a leaning toward any
such opinion.

It was about the same time that preparations
were made for establishing Jesuit colleges, in differ-
ent countries, for the purposes of general education.
The system pursued throughout in these colleges
or universities, was in the most decisive sense relig-
ious ; that is to say, religion as understood by the
Jesuit order, was assumed to be the legitimate end
of secular education, and was therefore, in the most
sovereign manner, to regulate, as well the choiceof
studies, as the modes of instruction. The interior
discipline of the college, and every usage, was
strictly in harmony with the requirements of the

176 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

ino9t highly toned picty ;- -piety, according to the
notions, practices, and feeling of the " Society." It
belongs, hpwevcr, to the history of Jesuitism, not
to our Buhject, to pursue this oopious subject, and
to trace the effects of the Jesuit system of ediication
upon the mind of Europe, as developed in the
foUowing Century. "Go, my brethren," said the
General to those whom he sent forth to preside over
the lately established colleges, " go and kindle in
all bosoms that fire which Jesus Christ came to
light up upon earth." It was not the lamp of hu-
man learning, not the torch of science merely, that
hewould have them cany forth; but a heaven-de-
scended illumination and warmth. Such, no doubt.
was Loyola's sincere intention.

Before despatching, to their several posts, those
who had been selected as superiors of colleges, or
as professors in particular departments, the General
demanded of each a written promise of passive
obedience in whatever related to their employments,
to the sphere of their labors, or to the government
of others. Those about to sail for Sicily declared
that, at the bidding of their father and master, who
to them was as God, they would as readily sail for
India as for Sicily ; or would go elsewhere. If now
destin ed to teach philosophy, in any of its highest
departments, they would, at a sign from him, charge
themselves with menial bffices in the house ; or,
although their natural taste and talent might in-
cline them to one branch of knowledge, they would
addict themselves, *at his wish, to any other. All
things ought to be indifferent to those who had
already immolated. their all, and had renounced

ras PRINCIPLES OP QOVKRNMMNT. 177

every persoual wish. The labovs of the Jesuits, as
teachers, belong to the history of the Society ; not
to om* present subject.

A profound poUcy, as well as a strict adherence
to his professed principles, manifests itself in the
course pursued by Loyola on difScult occasions.
Bobadilla had, with too little reserve, and too much
heat, opposed himself to the will of the emperor in
the affair of the interim. He had, in consequeace,
been driven from the imperial dominions, and had
retiinied to Rome. As to the ground taken by this
Father, the General could not bnt approve it ; yet
Bobadilla should have shown more deference to the
will and authority of " a prince." He was not re-
ceived therefore on his return with approval, and
was compelled to lodge himself elsewhere than in
the house of the order.

Yet notwithstanding this concession to secular
authority, the known displeasure of the emperor
woke up the animosity of some who had long re-
pressed theu* feeling toward the new order. Many
such there were, and especially among the Domin-
icans. A* Spanish monk of this order, named
Melchior Cano, inveighed against the Jesuits, as
the ministers of Antichrist. Their unmonastic
habit, the free access they had to persons of rank,
and the part they played in secular affaiis, afforded
ground enougb for such imputations ; and it was
not long before the fickle multitude was brought to
join in the outcry of execration against men whom,
just before, they had reverenced as divinities. ^Bie
Society, however, had by this time too firmly en-
trenched itself within the munitions of the Ghurch

8*

178 lOKATIUS LOVOLA.

to be overthrown so eaeily, and it quickly regained
its position in Spain. In this, and in severai anal-
ogous instances, it affoided evidence which allows
us to affirm with confidence that, except fn»n some
fault of its own, or some vice deep-seated in its con*
stitution, Jesuitism could never hare come, as it
so early did, under the reprobation of Catholic
princes, and of the Romish Church itself.

Loyola's steady adherence to the principle of his
institute, and his vigorous good sense, were shown
when one of the Fathers, Andrew Oviedo, principal
of the Jesuit college at Gandia, fascinated, by the
charms of hermit life, asked permission to vacate
his charge, and to bury himself for some years in
the wildemess. The pleas by which this request
were sustained appeared to be good : the Greneral,
however, refuted and disallowed them all : and in
the end convinced Oviedo that he ought to deny
himself in this instance, and that his personal de-
sire of higher attainments in sanctity was itself a
temptation. It is true we may, through the infirm-
ity that attaches to human nature, fall into errors,
or even commit sins, amid the distractions of a pub-
lic course ; but we must not attach an excessive
importance to small delinquencies, which are inci-
dental, not premeditated ; nor are we by any means
to withdraw ourselves from works of charity on the
ground of the personal damage that may thence
happen to accrue to us. Noble it is, and Christian-
like, to sacrifice, not merely our repose and our in-
di^ual comfort, but even our real welfare (within
certain limits) to the salvation of souls.

It was in this manner that Loyola diffused among

HIS PRINGIPLES OF GOVERNMENT. 179

his associates that energetic temper and those wider
priociples of action which then were almost new to
the Church, and to which he had given a definite
expression. He carried these rules of conduct home
in all instances without respect of persons ; or if, in
any case, the rank of the converi exerted any in-
fluence at all over the behavior of the General, it
was when those considerations to which men are
wont to pay a profound regård were wittingly set
at nought by him.

That illustrious convert and " great saint," Fran-
cis Borgia, whose story should form a history by
itself, had aheady merited a cordial reception into
the Society when he came to present himself as a
candidate for admission. There was good room
for Loyola to persuade himself, and room also for
the world to believe^ that the noble personage to
whom he opened his arms with such alacrity, was
regarded as an eminent saint, rather than as a
grandee of Spain, and a mighty patron-^f the So-
ciety at the imperial court. Like most of those
who, in the Romish communion, have distinguished
themselves by their piety and their self-denying
virtues, Borgia sighed for the hermit's cell. , His
duchess had lately died, and he, after despoiling
himself of ali which the world had given him-—
fortune and rank — ^and having, as one dead while
Hving, assigned to his children their shares of his
estate, he would gladly have beUeved himself ifree
in conscience to relinquish all further concemment
with things seen and temporal: he would lyt^ve
made his cell his sepulchre.

lioyola would grant to his noble convert no such

180 IGNATIUS LOTOLA.

license to ^^ live unto himself.'' The influeace which
Borgia actually possessed, and which he mightwitb
so much ad vantage exert in future for the advan-
tage of the Society, was not to be forgone. More-
over, Borgia had given evidence of peculiar abiUty
and discretion in the conduct of affairs, and migbt,
on ^very account, be thought of as likely to corae
into that high position which, in faet, he afterwards
occupied.* He yielded to the advice and injunctions
of his spiritual father and superior, and devoted him-
self with a sustained assiduity to the duties assigned
to him, for the "greater glory of God, and the good
of souls." It was not, however, until the peremp-
tory commands of the General had stopped his
couise, that he relaxed the austerities and remitted
the sanguinary inflictions of his daily discipline.
'^ God has given us," said the master to the disciple,
'^ a body as well as a soul, both to be employed in
His service, and we shall have to give an account
to Him of the one gift, as well as of the other." It
was in Uke manner that he restrained the misdi-
rected fervors of several of his colleagues ; it was
thus that he imbued them with principles essentidlly
differing from those upon whic^ the existing relig-
ions orders had been framed ; and it was thus that
heslowly n^oulded anew the spirits of all, bring-
ing them into conformity with a scheme, which, as
it had found no model in the past, has hitherto had
no peer.

If only these principles be admitted as sound,
andif w^ can grant this scheme to be itself legiti-

• Borgia snccceded Lainez a« (thud) general of the order, in tho
year 1565, and govenaed it until his death, in 1572.

mS PRINCIFLE« OF GOVERNMENT. 181

mate, then the bold consistency with which general
rilles were applied to particular cases, and the per-
fect harmony thénce resulting, are entitl'ed to ad mi-
ration. It was of a piece with the Jesuit scheme
that the sciences and poUte literature should be cul-
tivated with all possible assiduity in the colleges of
the^Society ; but it was not of a piece with it, and
therefore not by anylneans allowaUe, that the spirit
of advancement or of enterprise in philosophy should
be encouraged, or that innovations, even in the most
trivial matters, or wliere improvement was mani-
fest, should be accepted. Everything was to be
taken up in its then actual state, and was to be laid
down, when done with, in the same state. Jesuit-
ism presented the most determined aspect of oppo-
sition to the temper of the times, which was then,
in so effective a manner, pushing discovery forward
in all directions.

And yet, at the same tiine, a clearly developed
and pcactical good sense governed those instructions
which Loyola issued for carryin^ forward his scheme
of education within its iron-bound circle. Well he
understood what his personal expeiience had so
effectively taught him, as to the natural influence
of a college course, in chilling the spirit of devotiou,
and in substituting for the melting fervors and ec-
stacies of the spring-time of piety, a frame of mind
that is dry, chilled, and impoverished. He met this
discouragement, in the instance of those whom he
found to be laboring under it, with advice which we
must grant to be free from exaggeration and- extrav«
agance. It was in substance to this effect : — Here«
tofore you have waited upon Gcod in the way of

182

lONATnrS LOTOLA.

meditation and of spiritual enjoyment; but now
you are to do the same in the patii of iabor and
study. With a right intention, lessons in phi-
loeophy will become to you exercises of piety ; a
problem thoroughly mastered, will be as a mass
celebrated. Once it was visions and ecstacies ; but
now it is rules of grammar or logic that are to en-
gage your minds.

The General had now, that is to say, in the year
1550, borne the burden of the Society nine years ;
and this period of excessive Iabor, and of varied so-
licitude, had materially abated his natural strength.
He sighed for repose, and it may easily be believed,
his request to be allowed to resign his office was
thoroughly sincere. No such perplexing problem
as that which presented itself when, in the first in-
stance, he sought to evade the sovereign authority,
attaches to his conduct at this after time. He had
fully tasted whatever there may be of sweetness in
the possession and exercise of absolute and far-ex-
tended power ; and he had known what, to one so
sincerely conscientious, must be the often-recurring
paroxysm of anxiety that waits beside the chair of
those who sway sceptres. Besides, if we correctly
thinlc' of Loyola's constitution of mind, personal
ambition, in the ordinary sense of the word, was
far from being his ruling passion. His idol was a
vast abstract idea — a beautiful conception of spirit-
ual domination, which should at length supplant all
other dominations, and ensure peace and order on
earth. He had now lived to see his idea not merely
brought into actual existence, and become potent
among things potent, but to see it spreading itself

HIS PROFFERED RESIGNATION. 183

out on all sides, rapidiy, toward ils utmost boun-
dary. Perhaps the very success which had so much
surprised himself, and had so far exceeded his owa
sober hopes, inclined him now to step down from
his pinnacle, aiid to turn away his eye, whiie yet
the sun shone upon the prospect, and before any
otninous shadows might fall athwårt it.

Loyola, in faet, addressed an earnest petitionary
letter to the senior Fathers, conjuring them to ac-
cept his resignation of the generalship. Among
those who were thus addressed it is said that one,
in amiable simplicity, professed to think that, when
the General, whose every word was law, sOlemnly
declared himself incompetent to govern the Society,
he ought to be beUeved ! All beside were of a differ-
ent opinion, and all but the guileless Oviedo were
peremptory in their determination not to yield to
their superior's prayer in this instance ; none were
willing to incur, until it should be inevitable, the
risks of an election, the issue of which could not be
foreseen. In the end he submitted himself to the
will of his coUeagues, Assenting to their decision
that he should retain his authority so long as God
should Usten to their prayers for his life. It is af-
firmed, however, that this disappointment brought
upon him an illness that seemed likely to give him
the release which his friends denied him, from the
toils and cares of govemment. •

He however regained his accustcmied health, and
found full occupation, first, in revising anew the
code of the Society — the constitutions, which were
again submitted tx> the judgment and approval of
the Fathers ; and, next, in meeting and evading

184. IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

that hostility which the oider was now drawing
upon itself from various quarters. la France es-
pecially those jealousies and suspicions which it had
excited at the oiitset were spreading more widely,
and had assumed a form of settled opposition. Not
even the powerful support of the Guises, although
it availed something at court, was sufficient to over-
come the repugnance of the clergy, or of the par-
liament. It was furtively, or by cohnivance only,
that the Jesuits maintained ar house of their order
at Clermont.

The vigilance and sagacity of Loyola, moreover,
were constantly employed in detecting and rebut-
ting the assaults made upon the rehgious principles
of his spiritual children, by the indefatigable and
ijisidious " heresiarchs" of Switzerland, Franfce, and
Germany. These are accused by the Jesuit writers
of attempting to tamper with the fidelity of some
inexperienced members of the Society, in modes
well suited to their purpose — the perversion and de-
stiiiction of souls. Again, on the side of the Cath-
olic world, his utmost endeavors were incessantly
needed — now in shielding his establishments from
the assaults of haughty ecclesiastics, whose influ-
ence had been put in peril by the zeal and ability of
the Jesuits ; and now in warding off from the heads
of some of his distinguished coUeagues the fatal
glories of a cardinal's hat. The noble Borgia might,
if he had so chosen, have compensated himself for
the resignation of a dukedom, by accepting a dig-
nity that would have placed in his way the highest
seat of power on earth. In this instance, however,
the dissuasive interference of the General was not

mS CONTINUÉD ADMINISTRATION. 185

needed ; for "Father Francis," late Duke of Gandia,
proved thai his first relinquishment of worldly splen-
dor had sprung from motives that had gained su-
premacy in his soul, and which could be dislodged
by nothing which this transitory state can confer.
What is it to be duke, or cardinal, or pope, to one
who, in steady earnestness of purpose, is " laying
up for himself treasure in heaven ?"

It might have been foreseen by any one ac-
quainted with Loyola's character, and with the
spirit and intention of the Jesuit Institute, that he
would admit of no union or blending of his order
with any other religions body. Some proposals of
this sort had been made at a time when the Society
might have thought itself strengthened by alliances
with existing communities. Chiefs less clear-
sighted, and less firm of purpose, would probably
have yielded themselves to such offers. Not so
Loyola ; even while the Society was passing through
its period of precarious infancy, much less at a time
when it had posseåsed' itself of an extent of influ-
ence effectively greater than that of all other mo-
nastic bodies put together. Loyola perfectly un-
derstood, in its application to his own proceedings,
the meaning of the inspired apophthegm — "Men
do not put new wine into old bottles" — and there-
fore a brief and courteous reply brought at once to
a conclusion the treaty set on foot by the Arch-
bishop of Genoa, with the view of bringing about a
union of the Barnabites and Jesuits.

Although dignities might not be accepted by
Jesuits, functions inseparable from high distinction
at courts were not to be declined. Loyola, it is

186 I0NATIU8 LOYOUL.

manifest, had contemplated, from the first^ that in-
terference of his order with mundane affairs, which
has always been its characteristic. . Jesuitism was
constructed on this very supposition. One of the
Fathers, Gonzaiez, having attracted the notice and
secured the favor of the King bf Portugal, John III.,
had been named by him as his confessor : a mis-
taken modesty, however, impelled this Father to
withdraw himself from this post of honor. But the
General, wholly disallowing the refusal, peremp-
torily overruled it. A Jesuit, he said, should ever
hold himself ready to promote the good of others,
whether they be beggars or princes, and should turn
aside from no office of charity, whether called to
minister in hospitals, in galleys, in cottages, or in
palaces. Jesuits were not to be men of the cloister,
who might seclude themselves for their own benefit
and individual enjoyraent ; but should stand ready
to fulfil their mission with equal alacrity in all
quarters, and among all conditions of men. In
such instances Loyola adhered consistently to his
prinpiple, while on the ofle hånd he rejected mitres
and cardinals' hats, and on the other gladly ac-
cepted, for his followers, the most infiuential em-
ployments in the closets of kings.

A parallel instance exhibits at once that thorough
submission of the individual will on which the in-
sti tu te is based, and the features of that meek-
toned despotisnx which knew how to secure its
ends in all cases. Lainez, one of the earliest and
most able of Loyola's coUeagues, had been ap-
pointed Provincial of Italy, at the time of the sus-
pension of the Council of Trent, in which he had

HIS CONTINUSD AimiNISTRATION. 167

greatly distinguished himself by his leaming, elo-
quence, and discretion. Tliis Father, however,
haviag spent his best years in arduous and labori-
ous services, now desired, instead of promotion, a
period of seclusion, in which he might care for bis
own soul, and live unnoticed, in communion with
God. But his friend, into whose bands he bad
consigned his body and his soul, would admit of no
such evasion ; he would listen to no reasons of a
personal kind, which were incompatible with the
general good. " Tell me," says the Greneral to his
friend, ^' tell me what punishment you are willing
to undergo as expiation of your fault in thus
having wished to urge a plea dictated by a regard
to your particular welfare."

Lainez not merely yielded implicitly to the will
of his superior in this matter, but professed his read-
iness to undergo the most extreme humiliations,
and to perform every wonted penance ; — ^be would
be kitchenman ; he would teach the rudiments of
grammar to boys ; he would beg his way to Rome ;
or do anythmg else which should be enjoined him
as his punishment. The General, however, w^s
content with this submission : he had brought his
refractory friend Upon his knees ; and, instead of
imposing unseemly penances upon a man so highly
regarded by all, he commanded him, in expiation
of his offence, to compose a summary of Catholic
Theology fit to be employed in controversy with
heretics.

A rigid and punctilious discipline he enforced in
the colleges of the order, as necessary to preclude
that tendency to insensible and unnoticed declen*

188 IGNATItJS LOYOLA.

•

sioQ and decay which attaches to all human insti-
tutions, and which has actually effected the ruin of
so many. If a great principle be violated, or a
fundamental rule be broken in upon, the mischief
ensuing soon declares itself, and means are at once
used for restoring what has so been overthrown. But
a minute regulation is infringed without noise : the
point is yielded — it is lost, and in its train follow
other matters, each seemingly of small importance,
and yet together constituting the fence and bul-
wark of the entire system.

An occasion presented itself, in the instance of
the Portuguese Jesuit college, for acting upon these
principles. ^ Rodriquez, one of the most distin-
guished of the Society, had, during twelve years,
governed the college with great ability ; but yet in
a mode not sufficiently rigid. Symptoms had ap-
peared there of that liberty of the understanding
which the Jesuit institute does not favor, as well
as too much license in manners ; and these depart-
m'es from system had so much alarmed the vigi-
lance of the General, that he resolved to withdraw
the too indulgent superior from his office. More-
over, Rodriquez had attached those under his care
to himself in a manner which Lbyola deemed to
be incompatible with perfect allegiance to himself.
He felt his power, as general, tobe put in some jeop-
ardy by the warmth of that affection of which the
superior had become the object. Rodriquez, there-
fore, was appointed to the province of Arragon,
notwithstanding that national antipathy which ren-
ders always a Portuguese most unacceptable to
Spaniards ; at the same time, and for the purpose,

HIS CONTINUED ADMINISTRATION. 189

as it seems, of breaking in upon this prejudice, Mi-
ron, a Spaniard, was to succeed Rodriquez in Port-
ugal. This obnoxious course involved consequeii-
ces that had not at first been foreseen. The king
and the court of Portugal stoutly resisted the remo-
val of Rodriquez, while the -youth of the college
warmly protested that they would abandon their
profession sooner than yield obedience to aay one
who should corae in his place. This double oppo-
sition, however, the General at length overcame by
the alternate employment of persuasive and per-
eraptory letters. But when the provincial came
into office, he indiscreetly set about the restoration
of discipline in so stern and uncompromising a
manner, that an open revolt against his authority
seemed to be threatened. At length, and when the
ever-judicious counsels of Loyola had been listened
to by the successor of Rodriquez, the spirit of the
novices, and of others, suddenly fléw off in an op-
posite direction, carrying many of them aviray into
dangerous extravagances of devotion. Thus it was
that the establishments of the Society in Portugal,
loosened from their steadfastness, appeared to be
swaying from side to side, like a vessel that rolls
upon the billows without rudder or sail, and in a
manner not merely perilous to itself, but likely to
produce an ill effect within the Jesuit establish-
ments of Spain also.

At one moment the . General, filled with alarms
by the prospect of these disorders, had resolved to
attempt personally the repression • of them. But
the possible failure of his direct interposition would
involve dangers still more serious, and migbt lead

/

190 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

to the overthrow at once of his raighty enterprise.
He took therefore another courøe; and at the insti-
gation, or, we might say, under the inspiration, of
motives the most urgent, he collected and condensed
his every thought, combining aU in an epistle which,
within the compass of a few pages, embodies Jesuit-
ism, and reviecds it. The epistle on "The Virtue
of Obedience," addressed to the Jesuits of Pøriugal,
has been the key-stone of the structure: it stands
without a parallel in the volume of religious litera-
ture; and it deserves the most careful analysis on
the part of whoever would understand Jesuitism.
This epistle, ilrst despatched to Portugal, and then
to Spain, was quickly sent forth into all the world,
and became, and continues to be, a canonical in-
strument with the Society, universally.

It is the lot of men who hold steadily to some
great principle of action to be charged with glaring
inconsistencies by those who cannot grasp any such
abstraction. It was thus with Loyola frequently.
At one time we find him on his knees before the
.pope, feryently supplicating his interposition to
screen some Jesuit head from an impending
mitre ! then he rebukes a father whose modesty
would have prevented his accepting an ofBce of far
more amplitude and importance than any episco-
pate; and again he consents to the proppsal of the
king of Portugal, who looked to the Society for men
whom he might establish in Abyssinia as patriarch
and as bishops. But he well considered, that, while
the mitres of Europe were fraught witb allurements
that might kindle worldly ambition among the Fa-
thers, and thus fetally damage the Society, an

HIS CONTINUED ADMINISTRA.TION. 191

Ethiopian mitre was not unlikeiy to be displaced
by a martyr's crown ; or, if not, precarious revenues,
incessant labors, and extreme perils, would undoubt-
edly attach to the dignity in such a sphere, and
therefore it might safeiy be offered to members of
the Society.

On one occasion of a misunderstanding between
Charles Y. and the pope, the Jesuits became impU-
cated in the suspicion of having prompted those
measures on the part of the empefor which so much
irritated the pontiff. Loyola himself at the time
labored under a severe indisposition, which pre-
vented his offering any explanation : the ill-feeiing,
therefore, of the court and cardinals against the
Society went on increasing from day to day un-
checked. But at the earhest moment of his con-
valescence he hastened to the Yatican ; and while
yet scarcely capable of speaking upon afTairs of im-
portance, he suGceeded, not merely in rebutting the
charges that had been brought against the Span-
ish Jesuits, in the instance in question, but com-
pletely turned the tide of pontifical favOr, as before,
toward the Society ! Loyola possessed, in a high
degree, that rare faculty which gives a man a thor-
ough and instantaneous intuition of the views and
feelings of another, and thus allows him to gain a
lodgenient for himself, as it were, within that
other's bosom — thence to plead his cause. In deal-
ing with persons in authority he vanquished them
by holding tenaciously to his one purpose, while by
unresisting humiUation he seemed to yield every-
thing.

This personal talent, which, in a series of instan-

«

192 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

ces, had enabled the General to steer his vessel
safely through perilous straits, and had secured for
him the fa vor of popes against cardinals and prin-
ces, signahzed itself on the accession of the declared
enemy of the Society — ^^Cardinal Caraffa.

During the short month of the pontificate of
Marcelkis IL, that pope had given the General rea-
son to believe that the Society would bask always
in his fa vor : this sunshine, however, was but for a
moment ; and every one believed that his successor,
Paul IV., would deal with the order in a stem and
summary manner. Some time before he had en-
deavored to inteipose in behalf of his countrymeu,
a Neapolitan, whose son, at a tender age, had been
induced (if not seduced) to profess himself a Jesuit
The father(and the mother too, urging her rights
with loud lameMs) claimed his son at the hånd of
the inexorable General; the cardinal, at the in-
stance of the parents, commanded him to restore
the youth to them. Loyola, it is said, understand-
ing better the precepts and » principles of " the
gospel," resolutely turned a deaf ear to the outcries
of " flesh and blood." In faet, he easily persuaded
the pope to reverse the order of the cardinal ; and
nothing but sighs and submission were left to_the
bereaved parents.

This affront was supposed still to be rankling in
the bosom of the Neapolitan cardinal at the mo-
ment of his election, and few doubted that, now at
length, the order of Jesuits would find their infiu-
ence with pontiifs at an end. Loyola himself en-
tertained no suoh desponding apprehensions. He
had received an inward assurance that the head of

HIS CONTINUED ADMINISTRATION. 193

tbe church would still smile upon the company of
Jesus ; nor was tie proved to be mistaken by the
ev€nt. Paul, at an éarly time, summoned Loyola
into his presence, and at once treated him with un-
wonted distinction ; but he would fain have taken
a step indicative of fayor, in the world's esteem, the
very thought of which, as in former and similar in-
stances, filled the soul of the General with dismay-
The pope loudly declared that Lainez must now
take his seat in thé college of cardinals ! '^ If in-
deed it must be so," said the General, '^ the world
shall at least see in what spirit the Society accepts
ecclesiastical honors."

But on this occasion, whether or not Paul might
secretly wish to effect the promotion of Lainez for
the very reason which impelled Loyola to resist it
— ^both clearly forecasting its fatal consequences to
the order — ^whether or not Caraflfa were quite sin-
cere, Loyola, and his friend Lainez too, proved
themselves to be so. Not less heartily for himself
than did his master for him, he sickened at the
thought of this dignity. The entreaties of the one,
and the protestations of the other, at length took
their effect upon the mind of the pope ; and the hat'
was destined for some less ^cusant, if not more "^

worthy pate. The Society celebrated its deliver-
ance on this occasion in solemn services of thanks-
giving ; and Loyola, when he lavished the expres-
sioHs of his gratitude at the foot of the pontiff, felt
and found that, if no individual Jesuit had risen to
a seat of power, the Society had gained a far loftier
position than before: Paul contuxued not merely to

9

194 I6NATIU8 LOYOLA.

bestow his favors upon it, but admitted the General
to his intimate counsels.

Much embarrasment and distress, public and pri-'
vate, foUowed in the course of that struggle which
Paul IV. maintained with Spain ; and it was sup-
posed that the Jesuit college at Rome, dependent as
it was upon alms, or the stated contributions of a
few, would fall into necessities. Difficulties did in
&ct present themselves ; but means of relief were
ever at hånd. '^ It will be as by a miracle," said
ene to the General, <' if your order is sustained at
8uch a time as this." '^A miracle!" replied he,
*^ would it not rather be marvellous, if, while we are
serving God in reUance upon his promise, we were
to lack any good thing ?"

During the last year of Loyola's govemment of
the Society he was much occupied in contending
with the difficulties that impeded its progress in
Prance. The French clergy generally, and notwith-
standing the favor shown to the Jesuits by Henry IL,
by the Cardinal of Lorraine, and by the court, enter-
tained a deep suspicion of the new order, and fore-
saw the consequences inevitably to result to them-
selves from its obtaining the ascendency in France.
They must lose ground, precisely in proportion as
the Sociéty gainad ground : they well understood .
that the Jesuit principle is— -exclusiveness and su-
premacy : they knew well that Jesuits, while hold-
ing back from ostensible dignities and emoluments,
were, at a rapid pace, tending toward a position
whence they might give law to the Catholic world !
The French clergy of the sixteenth century appear
very generally to have understood that which Pas-

fflS LAST DAYS. . 195

cal, in the seventeenth, would not, or dared Bot,
perrait himself to discern — namely, that those per-
versions against which he inveighed were the proper
and necessary products of Jesuitism, such as its
founder had made, and had left it. The decree of
the Sorbonne against the order of Jesus, although
it does not touch the intimate moral sophism on
which the Society is founded, and does not reach
th« very centre, nevertheless so defines the circle
of mischiefs as to make it easy to reach that centre.
Strange that a mind like Pascal's should have
failed to find its way along these radii !

AU his colleagues urged the General to fiimish to
the church and the world a formal refutation of the
charges brought against the Society by the faculty
of theology at Paris. He knewhis part better, and
enjoined upon them the silenCe and the patience
which he imposed upon himself. " Truth," he told
them, "will prevail over that temporary illusion
which, just now, leads the doctors of the Sorbonne
to misrepresent and oppose the Society. But truth
will avenge herself, and us, in due time." Loyola,
perhaps, while in sincerity he reminded his friends
of these truisms, inwardly felt that the apprehen-
sions of the French Church were but too well
founded, and that the unrestricted triumph of the
Society in Prance could mean nothing less than
the disparagement and subjugation of the native
hierarchy.

After a time, and by yielding to the storm, the
vehemence of this opposition abated, and the So-
ciety crept on until it had gained as firm a fix>ting
in France as elsewhere. Loyola, while he so well

196 lONATIVS LOYOLA.

understood human nature and the course of aifairs
as to enable him to steer his bark through instant
perils; in the modes of negotiation, or by the man-
agement of individuals, kept his eye steadily fixed
upon those permanent means of success which, if
they be neglected, must render the most astute and
able administration of affairs unavailing. He showed
himself to be not merely a good pilot in a storm,
but a master of every science which a thoroughly
trained navigator should understand. It was thus
thai, in his colleges, and where, as in so many in-
stances, men of one nation were trained to exercise
their functions in another, he enjoined and enforced
the most assiduous study of the language of the
country, and required it especially of those who
were to be preachers, or who were to exercise their
ministry amohg the common people, that they
should show themselves to be thoroughly accom-
plished in the colloquial use of the language. He
would grant no indulgence to grammatical incor-
rectness, even the most trivial ; he would allow no
foreign idioms, no foreign accents, no college stiff-
ness or pedåntry to pass uncorrected. The Jesuit
preacher or confessor must be able to win his way
in public and in private by satisfying the ear and
taste of the most fastidious. That he might set a
good example on this ground, he employed a friend
usually at his side, to note each instance — and such
instances were frequent — in which, during free con-
versation, he offended Italian ears.

It was thus that the same clearness and vigor of
understanding which had impelled him, in his thir-
tieth year, to place himself under the rod, among

HIS LAST DAYS. 197

boys, in a Latin class, impelled him also, in his
sixty-fifth, to submit his daily coUoquial discourse
to the correction of a smart Itaiian youth ; and the
measuie which he deait out rigidly to himself, he
deait out as rigidly to others. Whatever we do for
the glory of God, he would say, and the good of
souls, must be done, not in a slovenly manner, but
in the most perfect manner.

Years of excessive labor were now fast anticipa-
ting the ordinary course of decay ; and the General,
in presence of the assembled members of the order,
declared himself no longer able to bear alone the
burden of the Society. He would not, however,
himself appoint a coadjutor ; but he called upon
them to look out from among themselves one whom
they might judge to be competent to the task of
rendering him the aid he needed. A Spanish Jesu-
ite, named Jerome Nadal, received the suffrstges of
all ; and he, without any infringement of Loyola's
absolute authority, thenceforward, and till his death,
transacted the business of the order. From that
time the General concerned himself chiefly, or
solely, with the care of Ithe sick, his attentions to
whom were assiduous and tender. " One so laden
With infirmities as I am, and who suffers so much,
may well feel sympathy with others, and must be re-
puted to be skilled in administering relief or solace."

But these, his last labors of charity, were speed-
ily brought to a close. Rome at that time resounded
with martial preparations ; it was no longer the
place where one like Loyola could choose to remain ;
and he retired to a small house of the order, at
some distance from the city. This removal, how-

198 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

/

ever, from whatever accidenial cause, instead of
proving beneficial, seemed to hasten his end. He
declined daily: those around him, however, and
his assidious medical attendants, apprehended no
immediate danger. He himself felt that his depart-
ure was at hånd. Nevertheless he allowed his
friends to employ whatever means they thought
likely to promote his recovery, of which none but
himself despaired : éespair is not the woxd to apply
to Loyola's state of mind, in the near prospect of .
death. He confessed himself, and received with un-
wonted fervor " the body of our Lord Jesus Christ."

One care only now remained to him : this was
to obtain, while yet he could be conscious of so great
a solace, the apostolic benediction. '^ Go," said he
to his secretary, — " Go, and ask for me, from the
pope, his blessing, and indulgence for my sins, so
that my soul may be the better sustained in pas-
sing the terrors of this moment." The secretary,
assured by the physician that death was not at
hånd, delayed til! the next day to execute this com-
mission. Having given attention to some ordinary
matters, he was left for the night, by the Fathers
in attendance, who believed that he would survive
some time. In the morning he was found still con-
scious, and able to listen to that message of grace
which had just been obtained for him from the
pope. Soon afterward, joining his hånds, raising
his eyes toward heaven, and feebly pronouncing
the one word, " Jesus," he expired.

This event took place an hour after sunrise, on
Friday, the last day of July, in the year 1556 ; and
in the sixty-fifth year of his age.

CHAPTER VIII.

loyola's mind.

>

Those must be feeble-minded indeed whose ill
opinion of Jesuitism would make it difficult foc them
to form an estimate of the personal character of its
author, on the broad ground of Christian, charity
and phiiosqphic equanimity. In tbis instance the
writer may easily beiieve that the reader is quite
wilhng to accompany him in the endeavor to reach
a conclusion, which shall ofTend no dictate, either of
genuine reUgious feeling, or of an eniightened phi-
losophy. And yet, even when we stand clear of
every narrow prejudice, we are far from finding our-
selves in a position whence it might be easy to form
our opinion of the personal character and merits of
a man like Ignatius Loyola. Indeed there are few
tasks more difficult within the department of moral
science, than that of estimating, fairly, candidly, and
correctlyy the virtues and talents* of a saint of the
Romish Church ! The difficulty especially attaching
to problems of this class is twofold, resulting, in the
first place, from what we could not call ihefraudu-
lenty but rather the unrecU, or Unsubstantial style
in which it has become the settled habit of Romish
writers to compose the biographies of their worthies.
With scarcely an exception, they compile sucb me-
moirs under the influence, or inspiration^ of that

200 lONATIUS LOYOLA.

polytheistic temper with which the saint-worahip
of their Ohurch has, in a greater or less degree, de-
praved all the moral and rehgious sentunents of its
adherents.

Polytheism — and not less so in its mitigated form
of saint-worship — ^polytheism has, in eveiy age and
among every people — cultured or barbarous, shown
itself to be a ''strong delusion," shedding falsity
upon everything near it. Å man of sound mind
is instantly conscious of this influence, when he
enters the temple of the Church's canonized ones.
Colorless dayUght does not enter that fane: — a
sepulchral taint sickens the atmosphere, and he who
has' not, by effort and practice, gained command
over himself, exclaims, ^'If I stay long in this place
I shall lose my senses : let me escape from it while
I can."

The difficulty that besets us in these instances is,
we have said, twofold; the^r*^ arising from the il-
lusive style of the writers from whom all our infor-
mation must necessarily be derived ; the second,
and which is still more formidable than the first,
springs from that deep iUusiveness of unreality, that
attaches, from his training, and from the atmos-
phere he has always breathed, personally even to
the most eminent of the Romish worthies.

Due care, and a patient employment of certain
rules of historical investigation, may, in some good
degree, enable us to surmount the first-named ob-
stacle, and may put us in communion with a great
and good man — spite of his unwise eulogists. Thus
in endeavoring to obtain a correct idea of an objcct
which we can see only through the medium of a

mS CHARACTER. 201

distorted lens — ^let us suppose it to be a beautiful
statue — ^is would happen that, although there might
be na single position of the lens which did not pre-
sent an image of deformity, instead of symmetery,
yet that, by shifting this medium in various modes,
we should at length be able so to compensate one
distortion by another, as, when all these misrepre-
sentations were collated, would make up, in idea at
least, a true conception of the real figure.

In the condensed personal history which has now
been placed before the reader, little regard has been
paid to those narrations which, if they be not foolish
fabrications, imply what must have been super-
natural, or must nearly have bordered upon the
miraculous. Yet as there are but slight traces (if
any), in Loyola's own and undoubted writings, of a
pretension to miraculous powers, no hesitation need
be felt in treating all such narratives as unworthy
of serious attention. Besides several instances of
miraculous cures effected by " our saint," and of
pfedictions marvellously fulfilled, we are told by his
biographers that, on frequeut occasions, he came
forth from his devotions with a face luminous ånd
radient — in a literal sense. Nor was it unusual, we
are told, for him to be found, at his devotions, float-
ing in the air, a foot or more from the groimd !
From the encumbrance of all this decorative stuff,
we release, without scruple, the real Ignatius
Loyola.

Ånd yet he is still found to be enveloped in that
which one feels is factitious, and which cannot alto-
gether be carried to the account of his biographers.
Loyola, we must remember, had reached adult

202 lONATIUS LOYOLA.

years at the time of his conversion ; and his mind,
at that period, was a waste ; the reasoning power had
not been trained ; scarcel}: at all had it been quick-
ened. Ålthough with him the purely intellectual
faculties were of extraordiaary grasp, they had
slumbered through what might be called a baby-
hood of thirty years ; and when at length they were
awakened, the moral emotions and the religions im-
pulses had already taken a form with which reason
never afterwards interfered. liOyola's reason mas-
tered every impulse, even the strongest, which his
religions convictions disallowed ; but it never ven-
tured to bring those convictions to its tribunal. It
is thus that he stands before us, at once, the boldest
of alL innovators, and as the most unquestioning and
submissive of the Church's dutiful sons. His intel-
lect was of giant strength ; but a silken thread was
always enough to bind it in allegiance to the faith
and usages of . the Church. No spirit more daring
than his, or more purely original and self-informed,
in relation to whatever he held to be free to him, or to
be at his fuU disposal ; none more abject in relation
to what, from his cradle, he had regarded as sacred,
Loyola could never have been the reformer of es-
tablished systems ; for he worshipped every shred
of the ecclesiastical tatters of past ages. But he
was the inventor of a scheme essentially his own,
and with marvellous sagacity, and a tact fertile in
resources, he contrived to lodge the prodigious
novelty — the Society of Jesus — ^within the very ady-
tom of the old system, and to do so, without noise,
without any displacement of parts, or the breaking
o£f even of a moulding ! By his hånds a house

HIS CHARACTER. 203

was built within a house ; yet none had heård the
din of the builder's tools while it was in progress.

While therefore we have to do, not merely with
one who is good and devout, according to the fash-
ion of the Romish or Mediæval Qhurch, but with a
man who takes his place among a very few on the
Hst of the intellectually great, this greatness shows
itself not at all on the side of his saintship : on thcU
side L(^ola is a '^ saint" only, and is as devout, and
ofiten as absurd as are any of the class to which he
belongs; and this eVer-eiaggerated and exaggera-
ting pietism, which is content with nothing that is
not enormous, is driven to the necessity of befaig
factitious; — ^it is a tawdry heroism. The things
said and done are in themselves, perhaps, good and
approvable ; but they are so done and said as if a
harlequin were doing and saying them. At every
tum of the bedizened performer we are inwardly
perplexed, not knowing whether we.should admire
or scom what is passing before us.

Several instances of this kind, attaching to Lo-
yola's first season of religious fervor, have already
been briefly mentioned ; others of a similar kind are
on record, in relation to which the pleå of inexperi-
ence cannot be advanced. If any doubt attaches
to their authenticity, every generous mind will re-
joice to throw them aside as spurious.

It was not the founder and general of the order
of Jesuits, but the " Saint Ignatius," whom we have
foUowed, begging crumbs of bread at the doors of
hovels, with a heavy purse in his girdle : or lodging
himself in an hospital, at the cost of its cbaritable
fund, within sight of his patemal castle, where his

204 ION ATIUS LOTOLA.

presence was eamestly desired: these, and other
instances of puerile extravagance, belong to bis ear-
lier years ; but other instances, not more to be ap-
proved of, enter into the period of his generalship.
He might, perhaps, think himself obliged to set an
example of strict adherence to the principles of the
institute, on occasions that were likely to attrået
attention, and to be noised abroad. Thus one day
the porter broke in rather hastily upon the General's
retiremenl^ bearing in his hånd a packet of letters
that had just then arrived from Guipuscoa, and
which, no åopbi, contained tidings from his rela-
tives, of whom he had heard nothing for a long
time. These letters might perhaps relate to the
most important interests of the writers, if not to his
own ; but it was the Jesuit rule to cut off all those
occasions of entanglement with the things of this
life, which might spring fit>m a natural regard to
the temporal well-being of relatives. Loyola, there-
fore, snatched the packet from the band of the
porter, and, in his sight, threw it, unopened, upon
the fire !

We are told that this " great saint" so gloried in
reproaches, and received with so keen a relish in-
dignities and scofiings, that, if he had not been re*
strained by a consideration of the ill effect such be-
havior ipight have had upon the minds of some, he
would, when opportunity offered, have feigned him-
self mad, have run forth into the streets, covered
with filth and tatters, and he would have done this
for the very enjoyment of it ! That he might feel
himself to be as the scum and offscouring of all
things, he would have drawn upon himself the

mS CHARACTER. 205

booting^s of the rabble I Does it seem probable that
St. Paul would thus have beseemed himself?
Surely bis history, and his episties, say that he
would not ; and therefore, inasmuch as Loyola was
not wanting in intelligence or good sense — as he
was no half-witted fanatic, this preposterous style
of behavior, or this professed readiness so to aet,
can be attributed to nothing but the radical un-
soundness of that system of moral training under
which he had grown up.

In his latter years the Greneral was frequpntly
compelled to put himself into the bands of the med-
ical attendants of the house. On these occasions it
was his rule to set an example of that perfect obe-
dience which was the first law of the Society. From
the moment when he asked the advice of his phy-
sician, and until the day when discharged by him as
convalescent, he surrendered, not merely his body, but
his judgment, to the will and disposal of him, whether
skilful or otherwise, whom, for the time, he had ac-
knowledged to be his sovereign lord. On one of these
occasions, when suffering grievously from an inter-
nal inflammation, to which he was subject, it hap-
pened that a young and inexperienced physician,
and who knew nothing of Loyola's constitution, was
then serving as medical attendant in the house.
When summoned to attend the General, he immQ-
diately employed means which the patient well
knew to be utterly improper in his case, and which,
in faet, aggravated the symptoms in a fearfiil man-
ner. It was a sultry summer time, but all windows
and doors were to be closed, the coverlets were to be
doubled — his drinks to be administered hot, and his

206 IGNATIVS LOYOLA.

wine was sour. Loyola, thoroughly understanding
as he did hia own malady, felt thai the treatment
he was now subjected to could not fail speedily to
be fatal : he knew too tbat a change of treatment
would instantly give him relief. But ^' obedience"
was his part — obedience, according to his own pithy
expression — perinde cadaver ; and it was now cer-
tain that a very few hours' continuance of this pro-
cess of voluntary and superfluous martyrdom would
have put a literal interpretation upon the meta-
phoric phrase, as applied to himself. At the mo-
ment, however, when life was ebbing fast, the
Fathers rushed into the chamber, and seeing clearly
what was the error of the stripling doctor, insisted
upon putting the life of their superior into better
hånds : this was done, and he survived ! If this
story be true, it must be taken as furnishing a proof
and illustration of what has been alleged, namely,
that there was a factitiousness in Loyola's moral
condition, which much perplexes any endeavor we
may make to estimate correctly the quality and
power of his understanding. If it be not true, or
if it be a much exaggerated narrative of what took
place, then it curiously exemplifies that vitiated
taste which at first prompted such a fabrication, and
which renders it acceptable to the ears to which it
is addressed.

It can scarcely be affirmed that Loyola found
ready tQ his hånd, within the Romish Church, ele-
ments, intellectual or religions, that needed only to
be moulded anew to suit his purpose. These ele-
ments existed indeed in human nature, and it is
true also that the jarring movements of the six- '

HIS CHARACTER. 207

teenth century tended to bring them more within
his reach than otherwise they might have been.
But it is certain that the modes of thinking, and
the habits that had so long been cherished within
the Church, especially within the circle of its mo-
nastic enlosures, were far from being what can be
regarded as constituting a fit preparation for the
Jesuit Institute. Jesuitism, while taking to itself
the concentration and the intentness that had be-
longed (at their best) to the monastic bodies, ran
counter to them all in its main principle, as well as
in the practical application of that principle. Mo-
nasticism had subsisted, or it was intended to sub-
sist, as a sort of moral anomaly in the midst of a
sensual world ; but Jesuitism planted itself aa an
anomaly in the bosom of the Church. The Afonk
vows to deny himself as to his carthly appetites ;
the Jesuit, as to his spiritual tastes. The men of
the monastery are, or they should be, aspirant fol-
lowers in that right-hand angelic stream that is
ever ascending Jacob's ladder, from earth to heaven ;
but the Company of Jesuits offers itself to the eye
on the sinister side of the same colossal scale ; and
its members are perpetually descending frem heaven
to busy themselves with the things of earth. It
was no easy task to tum a stream that had flowed
so long in one direction ; and . merely to imagine
such an enterprise as that of turning it, was the
efibrt of a powerful and self*prompting intellect,
confident in its own wrought-out conclusions, and
immoveably fixed in its grasp of what it had thus
created for itself.
And as the scheme was vast, the execution of it,

208 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

and the perpetual administration of a system so
novel in its intentions, and so wide in its actual ez-
tent, demanded the rarest talents. Loyola's power
over other minds was such as belongs to those men
of genius — a, few in any age — or rather a few in
the lapse of ages, who had first acquired a sove-
reign power over themselves, before they asserted
their right to rule the world. He was master of
other men, and even of some superior to himself in
mind and accomfdishments, because he had be-
corae mor^ måster of himself than were they of
themselves. It does not appear that he ever failed
to carry his purposes within the Society, or even
within the circle of the Church, so far as any*of its
measures or movemehts might affect the interests
of the order. In each instance in which he under*
took to wrestle with authorities he finally prevailed,
as by a sort of molluscous pertinacity : he wound
himself rouhd his antagonist, nor could there be
any release from the boneless gripe — except by the
spell of that consenting word, '^ be it then as you
wiU !"

In those encounters of this sort that are recorded,
what Loyola had to do was, not so much simply to ob-
tain the consent of authorities to particular measures
which he wished to carry, and which they might
think adverse to their interests, as to convince them
of the soundness of a principle wholly new to their
minds. And thus also towards recusant members
of the Society, the question between the Creneral
and the insubordinate Jesuit, was often a question
of principle, which the subaltern had not, as yet,
comprehended. It was the task of Loyola to forge

HIS CHARACTER. 209

upon many hundred minds the Idea of the Society ;
and in the execution of this task, far more than in
the compilation of its code, he displayed a power
and a unity of purpose, surpassed by few of the
achievements of either philosophers or legislators.
No instance is mentioned of his having lost sight
of his master principle, or of his giving way, except
for a moment, to any infringement of it. In mat-
ters ndt touching this principle he was easily com-
pliant, and seemingly open to the impulse of cir-
cumstances. Even in things that did afiect the
working of the institute, he was far from showing
himself to be opinionative, or unduly prepossessed
in favor of his first determinations. Consistency,
not pertinacity, was Loyola's characteristic.

Much was always left to the discretion of the
several provincials in the government of the So-
ciety. The General, vigilant and cognizant of all
details, was yet quite superior to the folly of attempt-
ing to do and to rule everything. His colleagues
felt that they were trusted by their master, and they
were ordinarily well pleased when they could jus-
tify the confidence thus reposed in them. By most
of them he was well and affectionately served. As
to the constitutions of the Society, it was by slow
degrees only that they came to be defined and fixed.
Their sagacious author, exempt as he was from the
legislator's fond conceit that his theoretic code could
admit of no improvement, wished rather that time
and experience should teach him what in it was
practically good, and enable him to abrogate or to
modify whatever had appeared to have been ill de^
vised. Rigid in the enforcement of each actual

210 lONATIUS LOTOLA.

rule, so long as it. stQod upou the statute book, he
lent an ear at all times to re$isons which might in-
duce him to remove it thence.

Loyola imderstood too the reøpective offices of
faith, or religions motive, and of reason. He was
wary of emotion, when it might influence those de«
terminations over which it was the province of rea-
son to preside. It was his professed practice, on all
occasions of moment, to implore the divine gnidr
ance, with a simple-hearted fervor, aa. if heaven
was to do all : and having done this— then to apply
himself, with all his might, to every natural means
of success, by aid of energy, sagacity, and the cal-
culation of causes, as if the event were whoUy de-
pendent upon human forethought and assiduity. *
" Let us pray as if we had no help in ourselves :
let us labor as if there were no help for us in
heaven.''

What is said of him by all his biographers, as to
the empassioned style of his devotions — and as to
the copiousness of that torrent of tears which seemed,
at length, to have quite exhausted his natural moist-
ure, and tohave brought him almost to the physi-
cal condition of a mummy, must be admitted as
authentic in the main, and therefore as proving that
his temperament was far from cold, or purely intel-
lectual. But he had learned a secret which, per-
haps, very few passionate spirite eyer leam, or ever
attempt to put in practice — namely, during the par-
oxysms of emotion to unharness reason, and to let
her stand by in her place. Loyola's emotions, how
impetuous soever they might be, never ran away
with his mind. At whatever time his bark was

HIS CHARACTER. 211

driyea before the hurricane of religious fervor, rea-
son was found to be safe oa shore ; And ready to re-
sume her place at the hehn, when the v^inds were
hushed. He did nothing without emotion ; but he
did nothing at its bidding. << Impulse and feeling,"
he would say, "man shares with the inferior orders
around him ; but reason is his distinction, and with
him, therefore, it should be supreme."
N A less pure reason than Loyola's could never
have conceived the Idea of the Society ; nor could
an inferior sagacity have governed it. Yet a spirit
less profoundly empassioned than his, must have
failed to breathe into it the soul and the vital force
which have carried it over the world, and given it
perpetuity. Loyola's reason, however, as we have
already said, was not at all occupied upon the ver-
bally expressed dogmas of religious belief ; or not
in any manner that would warrant his being styled
a theologian, or that could make it a pertinent ques-
tion — To what schooL of sacred philosophy did he
attach himself ? The awful mysteries of the Chris-
tian faith he discemed, in all their plenitude of un-
revealed wonders, during those trances or ecstasies
with which he was favored. His creed was always
and implicitly the Church's creed : his theology was
what he had felt to be true when in presence of
some effulgent manifestation of celestial objects;
he believed by intuition, not by interpretation of
Scripture.

Luther, credulous as he was in matters that did
not touch points of theology, reasoned hard and
logically always on every inch of biblical ground.
Loyola, who was wholly passive, or one might say

212 lONATIUS LOTOLA.

mindless on that ground, showed himself a shrewd
sceptic frequently, if not always, when called upon
to give ear to supernatural relations. The demon,
he would say, baffled in his endeavors to make him-
self master of the souls of the saints, plays what
tricks he can with their bodies. To this cause —
that is, to the counterfeit operations of the wicked
spirit — he attributed, not so often as he should have
done in his own case, but usually in the instance of-
others, those semi-miråculous occurrences of which
the Romish Church has too much availed herself
for feeding the wonderment appetite of the popu-
lace. Å certain nun was reported to him as subject
to ravishments of the soul, during the continuance
of which she remained insensible even to fire when
applied to her, and upon whose person something
resembling the famed stigmas of St. Francis at times
appeared ; and it was said that she could be brought
back to consciousness by nothing but a word of au-
thority, uttered by her superior. "Aye," said the
General on hearing this recital, " Aye, I can well
understand the holy nun's obedience ; but as to her
stigmas, I must know more about them."

Minds of the vehemently impassioned class — and
Loyola's was such — are not often, if ever, gifted
with the imaginative faculty and taste : it does not
appear that he possessed this power or this taste in
any degree that might have exerted an influence
over his intellectual course. Nor, on the other hånd,
does that luminous sagacity, which indeed was his
distinction, often combine itself with the creative
power, and the sensibilities that constitute the poetip
character. But then it was this utter want of imag-

HIS CHARACTER. 213

ination — it was this bare deatitution of <lie power
to entertain simple conceptions of beauty and grand-
eur, that threw him back, in his method of religions
meditation, upon " the beggarly elements" of a sen-
suous imagery. Perhaps no book in existence, like
the " Spiritual Exercises," (which we are about to
analyze) exhibits the unavoidable grossness of that
descent from the spiritual to the sensuous, which
results from an absolute want of imaginative power.
If Loyola had been a poet by mental constitution,
the book of Spiritual Exercises, instead of its being
as it is, a fit instrument of Jesuit subjugation^ — an
engine of torture, — would have fascinated all the
world, and have beguiled the human family into its
toils.

It has often been remarked, conceming those
forms of superhuman beauty which we owe to the
Grecian chisel, that they are not sensuous, and are
not obnoxious to the moral sentiment of a well-
ordered mind : — they are unearthly, because they
are purely, and in the highest sense, poetic. Nowj
it is not unwarrantable to afRrm of Loyola's mode
of picturing sacred siibjects, that it is in the lowest
degree sensuous, because it is not in any degree
poetic. Nevertheless, that which, to minds less pas-
►sionately devout than his own, is, and must ever
prove itself to be, of debasing tendency, did not thus
operate upon a soul so fervent as his.

Fervent he was — fervently devout ; and our Prot-
estant notions would lead us into a very perilous
kind of uncharitableness if they forbad our thinking
of Ignatius Loyola as an eminently good and Chris-
tian man. If some hesitation is felt when it is de-

314 lONATIUS LOYOLA.

maaded of us to aUow him his deøignation as a
great man, it is because the conception ofgreatness
seems to include necessarily that which the founder
of Jesuitism manifestly wanted ; namely, an enno-
bling inspiration springing from the sensibility of
the soul toward beauty and sublimity in the natural
and in the moral world.

PART II.

JESUITISM IN ITS RUDIMENTS.

CHAPTER I.

THK "KXERCmA SPIRITUAUA.

Although it does not enter into the plan of this
essay to trace the history of Loyola's Institute, we
may, for a moment, look onwards to a time dating
about a century after his death; and shall then
find a State of feeling and opinion, in relation to
the Society, prevailing, not merely on the Protestant
side of the European community, but on that of
most Cathohc nations^ which offers a problem that
can be solved only on one of the following suppo-
sitions, — or, by taking into the account a part of
each.

The high merits and indefatigable labors of very
many of the Comp^my of Jesuits being admitted,
while nevertheless it had dravm upon itself the
darkest suspicions, or even the vehement hatred of
Cathohc govemments and people, it must be sup-
posed — ^Bither that these suspicions and that this
odium were altogether unwarrantable and ground-
less ; or, That being in the main well founded, the

216 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

Society had, within the brief period of a few years,
lost the spirit and forgotten the intentions of its
founder, and had undergone a moral degeneracy
more rapid than has taken place in auy parallel
instance, and of which no intelligible account can
be given ; or, That the suspicions and hatred of
mankind being, as above supposed, but too warrant-
able, the Society, instead of having, in the usual
sense of the word, degenerated, or of its having
departed from the course prescribed for it, had only
developed the principles of its constitution ; and,
while rendering itsélf odious to states, and an object
of indignant dread throughout the world, it had,
nevertheless, faithfully given effect to the spirit and
letter of its code.

This last supposition we assume to be the only
one which can be adhered to consistently with the
facts of the case : and it is moreover believed that
an analysis of this eode, or of what we have termed
the canonical writings of the Society, exhibits
clearly, and incontestibly, those germs of evil which
have renderet, and which must ever render Jesuit-
ism a vicious institution, and must make it a source
of mischief, moral and political, in the bosom of
nations.

What may be regarded as the canonical writings
of the Jesuit Society, comprise, — The Spiritual
Exercises ; — The Letter on Obedience, addressed
to the Portuguese Jesuits; — The Gonstitutions,
with the original notes thereon ; and the Directo-
rium ; of each of which some^ account must be
given, with a brief descriptive analysis of its pur-
port.

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISE. 217

The book eniitled Exercitia Spirit.ualia, Avas, as
to its rudiments, if not more, the earliest produce
of Loyola's mind ; nor is it on that account merely
entitled to the earliest place in an examination of
the do6iioi!^Qts of his Institute ; for it has always
been repurded by the Society itself as the nucleus
of the øyiiem, ftod has faeen made use of as the
Texi-book øf initiatioii : in trulh, it might be des-
ignmUåj not imfairly, as the Bible of Jøsuitism.
The most ap|Mroved Jesuit writers have not hesitated, ^
in terms more or less distinct, to claim for it the
sanction of inspiration ; and a living writer of the
highest repute, in commending a translation of it
to the English public, does not seem to shrink from
such a supposition ; although the adroit use of a
parenthesis saves him from the necessity of plainly
avowing his own conviction in this particular. '^It
is a plan," he says, (that laid down in the Spiritual
Exercises) " firamed by a master-mind, (unless we
admit a higher solution) capable of grappling with
the most ardi^ous and complicated task."

Loyola, as we have seen, required every one of
his early colleagues in turn, and not excepting those
of them who were far his superiors in accomplish-
ments and in general intelligence, to pass regularly
through the course of discipline which this book
prescribes ; and from that time to this, it has been
the door, and the only door, into the Society. More-
over, it is enjoined upon those who, not intending
to become members of the Society, but seeking only
their personal advancement in piety, wish to place
themselves, for a time, under the spiritual direction

218 lONATIUS L.OYOLA.

of a Jesuit fether, that they should submit them-
eelves to this coiirse.

In the Directorium^ or book of instnictions for
those whose duty it may be to superintend the
initiatory discipline of candidates, and which was
drawn up, digested, and sanctioned, by Loyola's
successor, Aquaviva, the "Spiritual Exercises" are
held forth as of primary authority and Utility, and
as of universal application ; and in the "Constitu-
tions of the Society," the same place of primary im-
portance is assigned to them. We are bound, there-
fore, to regard this book as containing, what the
Society declares it to contain — namely, the very
substance, or germinating rudiment of Loyola's
Institute. Wonders of moral cure have been ac-
complished by it, we are assured, in the course of
three centuries ; and similar wonders are formally
warranted to result, invariably, from a due use of
it still, if employed under an authentic direction.
As sure is it to produce its result — that is to say, ah
entire conversion from sin to holiness — as sure, even
in the most desperate instances, as is Euclid, to
bring every rationally constituted mind to one and
the same conclusion. "The mind may struggle
against the first axiom, or rather demonstrable truth
in the series ; but once satisfied of this, resistance
is as useless as unreasonable ; the next consequence
is inevitable, conclusion foUows conclusion, and the
triumph is complete. The passions may entrench
themselves at each step, behind new works, but each
position carried is a point of successful attack upon
the next, and grace at length wins the very citadel.

THE SPTRITUAL EXERCISES. 219

Many is the fool who haa-entered in to a retreat to
scoff, and remained to pray."*-

No book whatever, perhaps, could be naraed which
would do much surprise and disappoint the natural
expectations of a reader who, entirely uninforméd
of its contents, should open it with some vague con-
ception of its purport, engendered by the title, and
by a knowledge, not very exact, of the character
and temperament of the writer. " The " Spiritual
Exercises" of St. Ignatius Loyola ! a Spanish devo-
tee of the most ardent temperament — a man whose
tears of joy and penitence flowed like a perennial
brook — ^the chivahous champion too, of "the Bless-
ed Virgin ;" — a man of habitual ecstasy, and who
was favored with visions the most extraordinary.
What then shall be the " Spiritual Exercises" of such
a saint, composed at the very moment of his first
fervors in the religions life?

The very contrary are they of what it 19 so natural
to expect. There are to be found in this book no
rhapsodies, no outbursts of devout feeling, no imag-
inative reveliings in scenes of paradisiacal pleas-
ure : there is in it no enthusiasm, no fanaticism, no
presumptuous intrusion upon the mysteries of heav-
en : nothing in it is expanded, nothing is elabora-
ted, in the way of description ; the book is enlivened
by no eloquence, is deepened by no pathos. There
is in it nothing savoring of Dante, nothing even of
Bonaventura: nothing of St. Bernard, nothing of
St. Basil, nothing of Thomas å Kempis: — nothing
after the fashion of the modern mystics.

* Preface to the Spiritual Exercises by Dr. Wiseman.

220 IGNATtUS LOYOLA.

The " Spiritual Exercises" is simply a book of
\ drilling ; and il is almost as dry, as cold, and as for-
mal as could be any specification of a system of
military training and field manæuvres. But is it,
therefore, a book to be contemned, or to be hastily
glanced at? This will not be thought by those
who know what has been its actual influence within
a Society like that of the Jesuits. If indeed we
may believe that the world will outlive, not Jesuit-
ism merely, but every scheme founded upon analo-
gous principles, and if this book shall still be pre-
served on the shelves of the antiquary, it will be
looked into with equal amazement and perplexity.
Strange will it seem that it should have been at-
tempted, or even conceived of as possible, to bring
into existence a permanent reUgious condition — a
condition embracing all the compass of the most in-
tense theopathy, by the means of a drill-book of
mechanical devotion — a drill-book to be got through
with in so many days— in twenty-eight ! Strange
that it should have been thought possible to connect
any such mechanism as this with the heaven-bom
freedom of the Christian system ; and how Strange
that such an attempt should, to so great an extent,
have been successful ! The philosophers of a future
time will perhaps attempt to unravel these perplexi-
ties by recurring to the faet, first, that the influence
of Romanism, through a course of ages, had been
a preparation of the human mind for yielding itself
to a scheme of this very kind ; and then, that this
scheme, mechanical as it is, and diametrically op-
posed as it is to the spirit of Christianity, does
nevertheless work up, and does avail itself of, some

THE SPIRITUAL EXERGISES. 221

potent rudiments of the Gospel. And how potent —
how omnipotent these are, is strikingly shown in
instances such as this, where the merest fragments,
when thus incoherently brought together, still retain
so much vitalizing energy, and fail not to sway and
to vanquish the* human spirit.

But we are told that this Novum Organon of
piety, whatever we may think of its contratiety to
human nature and to Christianity, has always
proved itseif effective for its purpose — that it uni-
forndy and infallibly yields the result intended to
be accomplished by it. Take it in hånd, submit
yourself without reserve to the process (under a pro-
per direction) ; and although you be a heretic — a
very Luther, although a leper in moral depravity,
you will come forth, at the month's end, or let it be in
six weeks, orthodox in belief, and holy in heart and
life. Methods of cure applied to the body may in-
deed fail, and they do fail, through the malignity
or the inveteracy of the disease ; but this method of
cure, if duly applied to the soul, liails never !

Such, in substance, is the style of those who in-
vite a sin-stricken world, even in these days, to try
the panacea of the " Spiritual Exercises !" The
class of practitioners virho are viront to recommend
their nostrums in this very fasbion, needs not to be
named. Where such boasts, however, are made,
and where an '^ infallible cure" is thus announced,
there may surely be ground for a presumption that
the cures so effected are factitious, or are only skin-
deep ; and that neither the human constitution, nor
the disease under which it labors, has been well un-
dei*stood. This is certain, that thoroughly taught

222 lONATIUS LOYOLA.

and honest practitioners carefuUy abstain from ex*
citing hopes in their patients, which they well know
might fail of being reali^ed, even if their skill were
ten-fold what it is.

This ''spiritual" medicine, however, so we are
told, must always be administered by a qualified
hånd ; and the afflicted must alsp enter the hospital,
where alone a successful treatment can be voudied
for. The practitioners, in this case, make no prom-
ises to "out-door patients," any more than they do
to those who may think to purchase a bottle, and
doctor themselves. " The life of a good retreat is
a good director of it;" so says the high authority
above quoted. But the patient is not perhaps in
circumstances to allow of his spending so long a
time as a month in a retreat. If so, the Society
adapts itseif to the necessities of such persons;
'' the weeks of the Exercises do not mean necessa-
rily a period of seven days (there are four such
periods embraced by the Spiritual Exercises). The
original duration of their performance was ceitainly
a month ; but even so, more or less time was allot-
ted to each week's work, according to the discretion
of the director. Now, except in very particular
circumstances, the entire period is abridged to ten
days ; sometimes it is still Airther reduced."* The
good Ignatius was too conscientious to undertake the
cure of a vicious soul in less than twenty-eight
days ; and in difficult cases, he asked another fort-
night. But how have all velocities been accele-
rated in these times, and how marvellously have
all processes in the arts been abridged! Once

* Prefiiee above cited.

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 228

a journey occupied a week, which now may be ac-
complished in a few hours ! Once linen could not
be bleåched in less than six months, now it may be
made white as snow in six days ; and now, in like
manner, it is authentically announced, that the
cure of a soul, that is to say, its entire cleansing
from all spot and stain of sin, may, in the case of
those who have Uttle leisure at their command, be
warranted to be eiSected within "ten days," or even
a less space of time. Let none be incredulous —
this mighty transformation may be effected, and in
no slovenly manner, within the above-named period,
incredibly sho|;t as it is ! " A man is pr^sumed to
enter into the course of the Spiritual Exercises in
the defilement of sin, under the bondage of every
passion, wedded to every worldly and selfish aifec-
tion, without a method or rule of life ; and to come
out from them restored to virtue, fiill of generous
and noble thoughts, self-conquering and self-ruling,
but not self-trusting, on the arduous path of the
Christian life. Black and unwholesome as the
muddy water that is poured into the filter, were his
affections and his soul ; bright, sweet, and health-
ful as the stream that issues from it they come
forth. He was as dross when cast into the fiimace,
and is pure gold when drawn from it."*

A month, in the by-gone times of sluggish move-
ment, was the time assigned to this " filter" pro-
cess — " ten days" now ; and who can say whether
some unthought-of improvenent in the method may
not ere long reduce it to three !

To call in question the reality of sudden conver-

* Pieface, as above.

224 I6NATIUS LOYOLA.

sions would be a perilous presumption. Such have
undoubtedly taken place in innumerable instancesr
No fauli, therefore, could be found, on this score,
with those who, in recommending the means they
employ for bringing men to repentance, afiirm thai
these means take effect often in a manner which
surprises themselves by its suddenness, and by the
thoroughness of the change. whicfa perhaps has
had its commencement, its crisis, and its comple*
tion within the compass of an hour ! Such things
have been. What is excepted against in the lan-
guage of those who recommend a course of the
" Spiritual-Exercises" is, the bold dar;ng which en-
gages that a certain round of devotional perform-
ances shall uniformly, or ordinarily, and as a mat-
ter of course, if not invariably, produce conversion,
even in the most inveterate cases, and within a
definite period ; — twenty-eight days for those who
can afford, and who can endure, twenty-eight days'
seclusion in a retreat ; — ten days for those who are
too busy to spare a longer time ; and less still for
any who have less leisure at their command !
Every customer is thus assured of his conversion ;
and he has only to say how many days he can set
off from his business for undergoing the p'ocess !

Such are the moral wonders — well might they, if
real, be called miracles ! — ^which even now are war-
ranted to be effected by a due use of the book before
us ! Who would not, then, look into it with an
eager curiosity ? Pew protestant readers, probably,
have ever given themselves the trouble to bestow
upon it more than a transient glance. In faet, its
pages have so much the appeai'ance of a school

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 225

manual, a grammar, or the rudiments of a science,
and there is so much of apparent repetition in them
— so much of what, if it may be practiced, yet can-
not be perused, and so entire a want of expansion,
or of continuity, that some special motive is needed
to keep the reader's attention alive, while he foUows
page after page. Such a motive may spring from
the conviction that Jesuitism is not to be understood
in any other manner than by a carefiil examination
of its authenticated documents.

The "Spiritual Exercises" were coraposed, we
are told, by Loyola, in the Spanish language — the
only language which he then understood ; and it is
affirmed that the author's autograph is now pre-
served in the library of the Vatican. At an early
period, however, a Latin translation was effected
for the use of the Society in all countries. Of late,
there have been several recensions of that transla-
tion, in editing which a careful collation of it, word
by word, with Loyola's autograph has been made,
and the variations, where they were of any moment,
have been inserted, either Within brackets^ or at the
foot of the page, or at the end of the book. These
variations, however, are rarely such as should claim
any notice in relation to our immediate purpose.
The edition here made use of is that of Turin,
1838* ; and in any instance in which the too strong
rendering of a passage for the purpose of supporting

* This edition w stated to be a reprint of the fifth, which was the
last revised by Loyola himseif ; and was printed at Antwerp, 1696.
It was diligently compared by the Editor (Father Ignatius Diertins)
with the new literal version from the Spanish autograph published
at Rome in 1835, by the General of the Order.

10*

226 IGNATIUS XiOYOLA.

an inference might be suspected, the lately published
Eoglish translation, to wbich Bishop Wiseman gives
his sanction, and which he professes himself to have
compared with the original, and to have carefuUy
revised, is adhered to.

The body of this book is, as we have said, di-
vided into four portions, to each of which a week is
assigned as the space of time within which the Ex-
ercises it embraces may be gone through with ; this
time, however, may be lengthened or abridged ac-
cording to the capacity, the proficiency, or the con-
venience of the novice. In every case in which it
is possible so to do, he who wishes to pass through,
or rather to be passed through, " the Spiritual Ex-
ercises," enters for this purpose a Retreat or house
of the Society, where he piaces himself under the
care of a director, who is to visit him once every
day, to instruct him in the course of meditation he
is to pursue, to examine him as to his progress, to
search his conscience, and to mark out his next
day^s work, according to the proficiency he may
have made. A cell, as remote as possible from all
disturbance, is assigned to the use of the novice,
who is to hold little or no intercourse with other
inmates of the house ; and none with his relatives
or friends. The doors and windows of this apart-
ment are to be closed, except when a gleam of light
is required for the purposes of reading or of taking
food.

It need scarcely be said, therefore, that what
meets the eye in the book before us, if considered
as an instrument intended to produce a given efffect
upon the mind, bears a very small proportion to the

THE SPIRITUAL BXEACISES. 327

system of means employed in a Retreat for secur-
ing this issue. The Directory is as nothing ; it is
the DiRECTOR, with his insinuations, his blan-
dishments, his calm anatomic dissection of the soul,
his application of the mysterious stethoscope of con-
fession ; it is the seclusion ; it is the long hours of
solitude, the removal of all the refreshments of
social intercourse and occupation ; it is the dim celi
and the interrupted sleep ; it is all these influences
together, that have rendered the " Spiritual Exer-
cises'' an effective means of conversion, whether to
Christian piety or to Jesuitism.

Twenty preliminary admonitions first claim at-
tention ; the first of which sets forth in what light
the " Exercises" should be regarded : they are called
methods of dealing with the conscience, and of
meditating and praying. '^ For as to walk, to trav-
el, to run, are bodily exercises, so also to prepare
and dispoæ the soul for removing all ill-ordered af-
fections, and for seeking and finding the will of
God, after the removal of such affections, in rela-
tion to a man's own course of life, and the salva-
tion of his soul, are called Spiritual Exercises." A
point necessary to be understood in ascertaining the
drift of much that ineets the eye in these Exercises
is this, that whereas the admission of the novice
into the Society (if the Society itself shall at length
think him Ukely to serve its purposes) is kept in
view from the first, the director is enjoined carefully
to abstain firom all allusion to such an issue of the
month's discipline ; and he is most scrupulously to
repress every intimation of a wish on the part of
the Society to isecure such a result. An air of the

228 lORATTOS LOYOLA«

mo8t abisolute indifference, on this head, is to be
assumed, and is to be maintained by the director
toward the novice. All that raay be done is to in-
duce such a state of piind as shall throw a proba-
bility on that side. Greatly will it promote the ad-
vantage which the novice is likely to derive from
his course of exercise, if, with a magnanimous free-
dom, he offers himself — ^his entire purpose and will,
to his Greator, so that he, and whatever belongs to
him, may be disposed of in the manner most con*
ducive to the divine purposes, and most in accord-
ance with the .divine good pleasure. It is true
that the novice has in most instances set foot within
the Retreat with this awful issue distinctly in his
view ; and the director, on his part, never actually
loses sight of it, even for a moment : >the one con-
stantly thinks of himself as intending this immola-
tion of himself; the other is always leading his
victim toward it. Meantime this reserve forbids
any word to be uttered by the novice which might
give vent to the feeling that is heaving his bosom ;
and it operates so much the more powerfuUy in im-
parting an intensity of emotion to the spiritual agi-
tations of this season of solitude.

Every temptation to shorten the period of each
aet of meditation (one hour) is to be resisted, and
care taken, for the ease of the conscience, that the
stipulated time be always rather exceeded than
curtailed. This rule is especially to be observed in
seasons of spiritual desolation, which the adversary
never fails to take advantage of, for this very purpose*

In the instance of those whose fervor and eager*
ness might prompt them too early and inconsider-

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 229

ately, to bind themselves by vows, or to devote
themselves to the religious life, the director is to
preclude, if he can, any such precipitancy, or at
least he is to hold himself clear of any attempt to
promote or procure an early profession : —

" He who gives the Exercises (the director) ought
not to urge the other (the novice) to poverty and
the promise thereof, more than to the opposite ;
nor to this, rather than to that plan of life ; for
although, apart from the practice of the Exercises
(extra exercitia) it is not only lawful, but meritori-
ous, t(>per8uade any who, as to their personal qual-
ities and condition, may be suitable for such a pro-
fession, to embrace celibacy, the religious Ufe, and
any other means of evangelic perfection ; yet is it
far more convenient and better, while the Exercises
are actually proceeding (inter exercitia) not to at-
tempt anything of the kind ; but rather to seek for,
and to await the manifestation of the will of God ;
and to stay until the Creator and Lord himself
shall communicate himself to the soul devoted to
Him, and embracing it, shall dispose it to the love,
praise, and service of himself, as He knows to be
most fitting. Wherefore the director should, in this
behalf, hold himself in a position evenly balanced,
and without attempting to interpose, leave the
Creator to deal with the creature, and the creature
with the Creator in the affair."

If this mode of proceeding be not marked by the
purest Christian ingenuousness, if it do not savor
of godly simplicity, it has the opposite merit of ex-
hibiting a nice perception of the depths of human
naturcj and great skill in driving a highly-excited

330 IONATIU9 LOYOI^A.

mind oilward toward a desired result, as if by its
own acts — influenced powerfully, and yet.invisibly,
by a foreign force.

Should any motive of selfishness, or of worldly
ambition, seem to lurk in ihe novice's mind, the
most eamest endeavors of the director are to be
employed in eradicating any such unholy tendency.
For the sake of its ulterior puiposes, the Society
rigorously excludes, or seeks to exclude, every other
view or aim from the minds of its members.

Ås often as it is discovered tbat the novice id of
slender understanding and weak character — in a
word, that he is one who is not likely to be service-
able to the. body, he is, for saving of time and cost,
to be summarily dealt with, and dismissed, within
the compass of a week ; and by no means is to be
carried forward to those exercises that relate to the
choice of a reUgious Ufe.

As to those who have their time at their com-
mand, and a serious purpose in view, it is recom-
mended that they should entirely withdraw them-
selves from the society of their friends and acquaint-
ance, and should dismiss all soUcitude about mun-
dane affairs ;— that they should betake themselves
to some House of Retreat, or cell, whence they
may have easy access to a chapel, there to hear the
morning sacrifice of the mass, or the office of
Vespers, without interference of others. In such a
soUtude, the soul comes into nearer communication
with its Creator, and is the better fitted to receive
heavenly favors.

That which is true and unquestionable, we find
often in these Exercises to be intimately com-

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 331

mingled with positions which^ although perhaps
susceptible of an interpretation not to be found
fault with, are equally susceptible of a rendering
that enibodies the very sophism whereon factitious re-
ligions institutes, in all ages, have rooted themselves.

" Man," we are told, " was created for this end,
that he might praise and reverence thé Lord his
God, and serving Him, at length be saved. But the
other things which are placed on the earth were
created for man's sake, that they might assist him
in pursuing the end of his creation ; whence it fol-
lows that they are to be used or abstained from in
prc^ortion as they profit or hinder him in pursuing
that end. Wherefore we ought to be indifferent iOr
ward all created things, in so far as they are sub-
ject to the liberty of our will, and not prohibited, so
that, to the hest of our power, we seek riot health
more than sickness, nor prefer riches to poverty,
honor to contempt, a long life to a short one. But
it is fitting, out of all, to choose and desire those
things only which lead to the end."

Thus it is that, in its rudiments, Jesuitism may
not seem to differ at all from the earlier ascetic sys-
tems. The principles assumed are perhapa iden-
tical, and identical even in thé phraseology that is
employed to convey them. The vast dinerence, in
faet, results from their af^lication to modes of Ufe
essentially unlike. Thus, for instance, the latter
Clauses of the passage thus cited express that Buddh-
ist doctrine which all the ancient ascetic schemes
took up and professed; — a doctrine subversive at
once of genuine moraUty and piety, namely, that
those iinpulses of human nature which impel us to

333 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

pursue and to secure our well-being — animal, social,
and intellectual, are to be paralyzed, instead of
regulated. Christianity regulates human nature,
and works upon the basis of its undisturbed consti-
tution. Instead of saying that a man '^ should not
seek health more than sickness, nor prefer riches to
poverty, honor to contempt, a long life to a short
one" — instead of this, it addresses these very in-
stincts of self-preservation, and the desire of well*
being, and boldly says — reiterating the promises of
a less spiritual dispensation — " he that will love life
and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from
evil," &c. Christianity taught those whom it found
in the condition of sidves, in the first place, patiently
to endure so great a misfortune ; but then, and if
there were the opportunity to obtain freedom — " to
use it rather." Nothing can be more manifest than
is the contrariety of the ascetic dogma of indiffer-
entism or moral apathy, to the spirit of Christianity.
But then what is to be noted is this — that whereas
this sophistic principle was altogether in harmony
with the anchoretic mode of life, and was in keep-
ing with its practices, and therefore took no firm or
broad hold of public morals, to deprave them, it has
been far ot^erwise with a Society the members of
which are sent forth to mingle familiarly with the
world — to be as little distinguished as possible from
other men in their attire and their modes of be-
havior, and to diffuse themselves throughout the
mass in every mode of ordinary coUoquial inter-
course. We may be quite sure that an absolute
indifference to present good and ill can never be
maintained by more than a very few individuals

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 233

among a mass of men, living abroad in the world,
and coming daily into contact with the good and
the ill of common life. So long, therefore, as this
stoic indifference is the professed principle of siich a
body, its silent and introverted operation wiil be of
the most unfavorable kind upon the moral senti-
ments ; it will not fail to render the conscience ob-
tuse, and to generate a constitutional disingenuousr
ness not very remote from hypocrisy. The bold
attempt which Loyola has made to disjoin the foun-
dation principle of the ascetic institute from the as-
cetic and anchoretic mode of li/e, can have no other
issue than this, and the faet should be noted as
foremost among the causes that have drawn upon
Jesuitism its ill repute as characterized by a cold
duplicity. Hundreds of hermits there have been
whose hard struggles against human nature —
whose "combats with the demon" — have attested
the honesty, if they have not established the wis-
dom of their profession of indifference to all things
that affect only the well-being of the present state.
But can we believe that such inward conflicts are
maintained — or maintained successfully, by men of
ordinary mould, while passing to and fro among
the enticements, the solaces, the trials, the illusions,
and the realities of the open world ?

Much that meets the eye in these " Spiritual Ex-
ercises" cannot but seem utterly inane and nuga-
tory. The reader, not informed of the important
place which the book holds among the institutes of
so noted a society, would almost instantly throw it
from him, and take up in its stead, and with a feel-
ing of comparative respect, the most frivolous sam-

234 lONATIUS LOYOLA.

pie of liierary trifling. But if such a reader knows
anything of the conåicts of good and evil principles
in his own bosom — if he have himself, and in all
seriousness, contended against the ill impulses of
the heart, and have done so on the ground of Chris-
tian motives, it must be with a feeling kindling from
contempt into indignation that he peruses such in-
structions as the following, and is gravely assured
that, by the careful and punctilious observance of
inanities such as these, a vicious condition of the
soul, even the most inveterate, will be remedied —
and this — within so many days ! —

— The novice is enjoined to sift his conscience
three times every day ; and after supper, each day, he
is to notify the frequency of his delinquencies in any
one respect (an easily besetting sin being specified)
by so many points made upon a line. Now, if due
diligence be used in checking this one evil propen-
sity, each day's dotted line of actual transgressions
will be, by a little at least, shorter than the one
above it, and so on^^ard and downward, from day
to day, until the persecuted sin has been reduced to
an infinitesimal quantity ; as thus —

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 235

Who thai had, in this manner, and within the
compass of a few days, brought an inherent vice of
his nature down from a fonr inches' length to a
point, would not try the efficacy of so sure and easy
a method upon the vice that happens to stand next
in order on his private list ? In this mode of treat-
ment"sinner" may become "saint"as surelyand
as quickly as a few theorems of Euclid may be
demonstrated !

The diagram above presented shows a week's
work in the eradication of " evil afiections ;" but in
the same mode a progress in virtue may be geomet-
rically expressed, as it advances from week to week,
or from month to month. " Of the foUowing fig-
ures, the first, which is longer than the rest, is as-
signed to the first day, say the Sunday ; the second,
which is a little shortér, to the Monday ; and so in
succession, it being reasonable that the number of
faults should decrease daily ;" and so weeks suc-
cessively may be treated mathematically.

There are minds, it is true, upon which inanities
of this sort might be imposed with as little harm,
perhaps, as benefit. But what must be the efiect
of tbem upon a cultured mind that has reached
maturity, and that is awake to every impulse of the
moral sentiments? If methods such as these, so
frivolous and so illusory, be actually subraitted to
by such a mind, there must first have taken place
such a crushing of the faculties as woulS come little
short of stupefaction ; and this in faet seems to be
the intention of this course of disqipline. It is easy
to understand, from the sample just now given of
the methods of cure resorted to, what sort of resto-

236 lONATIUS LOYOLA.

ration to virtue it is that is warranted to be effected
in twenty-eight days, or in ten !

The prominent characteristic of these Exercises
is tbe endeavor made from time to time, and per-
petually repeated, te connect religions meditation
with sensible images exclusively ; that is to say, to
pre-occupy the conceptive faculty in every case with
sensuous impressions. The instances will be ad-
duced, or a sufficient sample of them, as they occur.
The subjects of meditation being almost entirely
confined to a meagre series of incidents drawn from
the Gospels, great pains are taken to give a purely
graphic direction to the thoughts in dwelling upon
each incident. Thus, at the commencement it is
said : —

" The first prelude is a certain way of construct-
ing the place — forming an image of the scene, for
which it must be noted, that in every meditation or
contemplation about a bodily thing, as for example
about Christ, we must form, according to a certain
imaginary vision, a bodily place representing what
we contemplate, as the temple, or a mountain, in
which we may find Christ Jesus, or the Virgin
Mary, and the other things which concern the sub-.
ject of our contemplation. But rf the subject of
meditation be an incorporeal thing, as is the consid-
eration of sins, now offered, the construction of the
place may be such as if by imagination we see our
soul in this corruptible body, or confined in a prison,
and a man himself, in this vale of misery, an exile
among brute animals."

That is to say, care is taken that in every in-
stance the sensuous faculty shall not only be in ex-

THE SPIRITUAL EXERGISES. 237

ercbe, but shall lead the way,. In concluding a
meditation, well condensed in its subjects, upon sin,
a sensible coUoquy is to foUow between the penitent
and the Saviour — "imagined to be present before
rae, fixed on the cross." Much that would be pointed
and affecting, if only it were separated from what is
mechanical and earthly, might be cited from these
Exercises relating to, or intended to produce, com-
punction for &in. Thus, the emotions that should
be spontaneous, are ordered at the point where, in
due course, they are to be forthcoming ; as for ex-
ampl«, — " The^ifA point is to break forth into ex-
clamations, from a vehement commotion of the feel-
ings, admiring greatly how all creatures (going over
them severally) have born with me so long, and
even to this time preserved mealive ; how the angels,
bearing the sword of the divine justice, have pa-
tiently borne with me, guarded me, and even assisted
me with their prayers ; how the saints have inter-
ceded for me ; how the sky, the sun, the moon, and
the other heavenly bodies, the elements, and all
kinds of animals and productions of the earth, in
place of the vengeance due, have served me ; how,
lastly, the earth has not opened and swallowed me
up, unbarring a thousand heUs, m which I might
suffer everlasting punishments."

Of those peculiarities of Romanism which are
the most offensive to a well-ordered and scriptually
informed mind, as little as can be supposed meets
the eye in these Exercises. Nevertheless the great
distinctive " mark" of the Romish system is broadly
set upon the wbole ; namely, the intercessory rela-

238 lORATlUl^ L9YOLA.

tionship of the Yirgin to mankind, which is once
and again formally recognized.

Each Exercise is concluded with a colloquy, or a
conversation heldbetween thepenitent, and adivine
person imaged as present before the mind ; as thus,
— "The first colloquy is made to our lady, the
mother of Christ, by asking — flagitando — her in-
tercession with her Son, and the galning of grace
necessary to us for three things ; first, that we may
feel the inward knowledge and detestation of our
sins ; secondly, that, acknowledging and abhorring
the perverse order of our actions, we may correct
it, and ri^tly order ourselves according to God ;
thirdly, that perceiving and condemning the wick-
edness of the world, we may recover ourselves from
worldly and vain things. These things having been .
finished, let Ave Maria be said once."

The second colloquy is to be held with Christ the
Mediator, " that He would obtain for usthose same
things from the Etemal Father," — ^and the third —
going on in the same order — ^with God the Father."

A certain stage on the road of repentance having
now been reached, there follows — for the deepening
of the emotions already excited — a " contemplation
concerning heil;" and this is so characteristic of
these spiritual exercises, that it should be cited
entire.

" The first prelude is here the forming the place,
which is to set before the eyes of the imagination
the length, breadth, and depth of helL The second
consists in asking for an intimate perception of the
punishments which the damned undergo ; that if
at any time I should be forgetful of the love of God,

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 239

at least the fear of punishment may restrain me
from sins.

" The first point is, to see by the imagination the
vast fires of heil, and the souls inclosed in certain
fiery bodies, as it were in dungeons. The second
is to hear^ in imagination, the lamentations, the
howlings, the exclamations, and the blasphemies
agaiust Christ and his Saints, thence breaking forth.
The tbird is to perceive by the sméll also of the
imagination, the smoke, the brimstone, and the
^stench of a kind of sink, or filth, and of putrefac-
tion. The fourth is, to taste in like manner those
most bitter things, as the tears, the rottenness, and
the worm of conscience. The fifth, to touch in a
manner those fires, by the touch of which the souls
themselves are burnt.''

In observance of the prescribed order of going
through with the Exercises, this descent into heil,
occupying one hour, would be made late in the
evening — the hour before supper. No one would
deny that an hour's converse with terrors, in this
formal manner conducted, might have a salutary
influence in certain cases; but we cannot forget
the faet, that, in propiortion as any religions system
has been anti-spiritual a§d sensuous, it has been
prone to have recourse to these elaborated means
of stimulating, not the imagination, but the sen-
sorium. If this section of the Spiritual Exercises
be altogether of good tendency, then it must be
allowed that several noted chapters of the Koran
are of still better tendency. Loyola endeavorø to
work upon the five senses, or upon the mind's power
of repeating their impressions, which indeed, except

240 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

as to eight and hearing, is extremely limited : but
Mahomet has done this in a far more effeciual style.
Yet what has been the result of such attempts ? —
seldom, if ever, to awaken the moral sense. The
brain may be frenzied, while the soul is still dead.
If the Koran must not be adduced on this ground,
let certain passages of the Inferno be employed in
attempting to effect conversions — and let these be
aided by Michael Angelo's Lsist Judgment. Poor
tools for such a work !

Much might be cited, having the same purpose to
stim ulate the lowerfaculties; in truth this endea^yor
is the characteristic of the book throughout. It is
in accordance with this intention that frequent
directions are given, better befitting the Ups of a
posture master, than those of a religious teacher.
The penitent is directed to set about the allotted
contemplation — now kneeling on the ground, and
lying on his face, or on his back ; now sitting or
standing; and composihg himself in the way in
which he may hope the more easily to attain what
he desires. Further to ensure success, he is '^to
deprive himself of all the brightness (rf the light ;
shutting the doors and windows so long as he re-
mains there (in his cell) gxcept while he has to read
or take his food." The effects of meditation are to
be enhanced by penance, in three kinds ; first, by
diminishing the amount of aliment — ^the more one
withdraws (of food) the better one does; avoiding,
however, the injury of one's constitution, or (indue-
ing) any serious weakness or infirmity. — Secondly,
by shortening the time of sleep, always keeping in
jnind the same caution, and lastly by infliction of

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 241

pain upon the flesh itself— as by the wearing of hair-
ck>th, ropes, or iron bars, the application of strokes
or blows, or the use of other austerities. In all
wMch things, however, it seems more expedient that
the sense of pain should be in the flesh alone, and
not penetrate the bones, with the danger of injury
to the health. Wherefore we should use in preference
whips made of small cords, which hurt the outward
parts, and not those within so as to injure the health."
The uses of penance, we are told, are threefold: —
^^Jirst, it makes some satisfaction for past sins ; sec-
ondly, it aids a man in bringing his inferior nature,
his sensuality, into subjection to reason ; and thirdlffy
it is a means of obtaining some gift or grace which
we desire."

As to these Exercises of the first week, we are
assured that by the means of them ^^Sin is aban-
doned, hated, loathed." At the conclusion of the
painful task the soul finds itself prostrate, and full
of anxieties. The past is remedied ; but what is to
be done for the Aiture? '^ It is the Exercises of the
second week that are to bring things forward to
their next stage."

It might be a point for literary discussion to deter-
mine whether the palm of quaint ingenuity should
be awarded to the author of the Spiritual Exercises,
or to the Bedford dreamer. The "Holy War," to
saynothing of the "Pilgrim'sProgress," isundoubt-
edly more picturesque, and far more affecting too,
than are those meagre descriptions of the ^^Two
Potentates," which are the principal objectspresented
in the second week's Exercises.

The penson exercised is directed to form in his

11

242 lONATmS LOYOLA.

mind '^an imaginary vision, as if the whole circuit
of the earth, inbabited by so many different nations,
lay open before bis eyes. Then, in one particular
part of the world, let the cottage of the Blessed
Yirgin, situated at Nazareth, in the province of
Galilee, be beheld. He is to yiew in idea the human
beings living on the face of the earth ; so different
in manners, gestures, and actions; some white, and
dthers black; some enjoying peace, and the rest
disturbed by wars ; this one weeping, and that one
laughing; one well, another ill; — many being bom,
and many, on the other band, dying; with other
varieties, almost innumerable. Next must be con-
templated the three Divine Persons, from their royal
throne, looking upon all the races of men, living as
bUnd on the surface of the earth, and descending
to heil. Afterwards, we shall consider the Virgin
Mary, with the angel saluting her ; alwaysapplying
something thence to ourselves, that from such con-
siderations we may derive some fruit.

'^ The second point," that is to say the second
part of this sensuous process, ^^ is to perceive by the
inward hearing what all the persons are saying, as
what the men are saying, who on earth are con-
versing together, blaspheming, reviling each other ;
what the Divine Persons are saying, who in heaven
are speaking to each other concerning the redemp-
tion of the human race ; what the Yirgin and the
angel are saying, who in a little cell are conversing
on the Mysteries of the Incamation. By reflecting
on all which things," &c.

The third point in order will be " to consider at
the same time the actions ako of the persons ; as,

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 243

for instance, how mortal men are treating one
another, and all rushing to heil; how the most
Holy Trinity is performing the work of the incarna-
tion ; how also the angel is executing his commis-
sion, and the Blessed Yirgin, bearing herself most
humbly, is giving thanks to the Divine Majesty.
From which things," (kc.

Then foUows the colloquy, in which the novice
^'searches out words, with which he may worthily
address each Divine Person, the Word Incarnate,
and his Mother also."

This entire apparatus of what might not unaptly
be called Pictorial Piety, indicates with sufficient
clearness one of the sources whence probably it was
derived — ^namely, those quaint mosaics with which
the pavements of churches were frequently deco-
rated, as well as the paintedwindows and the altar
pieces, of which samples are still extant, especially
in the Italian churches. Another probable source
of these images will presently be mentioned. Lo-
yola's stock of biblical knowledge, at the time when
the ^' Spiritual Exercises" were composed, embraced,
as it seems, very little beyond that which he had
gathered from such visible sources. The extreme
meagreness of his allusions to the Scriptures at
large, and the narrowness of that line of incident
which appears to have been familiar to his memory,
renders it almost certain that the Picture-Gospel,
drawn forth upon church walls, or in illuminated
books, was all the gospA he had then leamed. His
was fsir from being a creative or poetic imagination ;
it was a servile faculty, forging itself forward by
mechanical helps, from point to point, of a narra-

244 IGNATIUS LOTOLA.

tive. It might be nothing more than some series
of decorations, resembling the Dutch tiles of a later
time, thai suggested such labored descriptions as the
following.

The novice is to fancy the Virgin, " sitting on a
she-ass (as one may piously meditate) ; she and
Joseph, with a poor maid servant, and an ox, set
out for Bethlehem, that they might pay the tribute
laid upon tbem by Cæsar." Then he must form
his idea of the journey, as to its " length, obUquity,
smoothness, or roughness presenting itself from
place to place. Then also we shall examine the
place of the nativity, hke to a cavem ; whether
broad or narrow, lying flat, or rising up, conveniently
or inconveniently prepared."

Is it a conjecture too bold, that one of the two or
three religions hooks put into the hånds of Loyola,
when he asked for romances, to divert his sufTer-
ings, and one of which, we are told, was " a Life
of Christ," might be an illuminated summary of the
gospels^ the pictures of which fixed themselves in-
delibly ip his fancy, and in faet became the germi-
nating rudiment of these very Exercises? They
were composed, we are assured, almost immediately
after his conversion ; and what is the staple of them,
but precisely such as the rude cuts or paintings of
such a picture-gospel would fumish to a susceptible
but untutored mind ? In faet it is not easy to dis-
miss the idea of the evangelic decorations, so co-
piously fiimished to the Christian world at that
time, while we peruse these methods of meditation.

Each of these scenes is to be gone over, again
and again, until the sentiment which it ought to

THE SPIRITUAX4 EXERCISES. 345

excite has actually been felt, and the repetition is
to be made a. fourtfa, a fifth time, or oftener, The
sensuous faculty is, in a manner, to be worked to
and fro — and to be turned this way and that, among
these objects, until they have incorporated them-
selves among the elements of the soul. " The first
point is (as before) to see in imagination all the per-
sons — ^the second, to hear what they are saying, or
what it may be natural for them to say ; the third,
to perceive, by a certain inward taste and smell, how
great is the sweetness, delightfulness of the soul
imbued with the divine gifts and virtuos, according
to the nature of the person we are considering ....
The fourth, by an inward touch to handle and kiss
the garments, piaces, foot-steps, and other things
connected with such persons.

The first process concerning the Incarnation, is
to be performed ^^ at midnight ; the next at dawn ;
the third about the hour of mass ; the fourth about
the time of vespers ; the fifth a little before supper ;
and on each of them will be spent the space of one
hour." A diminished task is to be indulged to the
aged and infirm, or to those whose fervor of . mind
too much exhausts the animal strength. Care, how-
ever, is to be taken that whatever in the Exercises
is curtailed, there should always be before pupper
^^ an exercise of the five senses of the imagination,"
on the subject appointed for the day. On the ob-
servance of this rule the efficacy of these spiritual
exercises is said to hinge. To each day's task there
is added so many repetitions, together With ^' the
application of the senses."

The occupation of the fourth day of this second

246 IGHAITUS LOYOLA.

week id suffidently characteristic of the Jesuit
øeheme, as to iis method of initiation. It has al*
ready been mentioned that although the director of
novices is carefiilly to avoid every allusion to the
supposed case of admission into the Society, and is
so to bear himself toward his pupil as if it had no
wish whatever that such should be the issue of his
month's preparation, yet (as will appear incontesti-
bly from what foUows) this result is the real inten-
tion of the Exercises, throughout which may be
discemed the track of an astute and well concealed
procedure, tending onwards regularly towards the
the one end contemplated from the first. c/-
. The moment having arrived at which the novice
should endeavor to leam what is the mind of the
Lord, and should ^^search out and entreat that pe<
culiar kind of life in which he prefers us to serve
his own majesty/' a grand preparation is made with
this purpose in view, for inducing the desired elec-
tion by working upon the sensuous faculty with the
aid of images more exciting than those heretofore
presented to it. While these images are described,
no one who has amused an hour in examining the
uncouth emblematic wood-cuts of the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries, can resist the belief that Lo-
yola's own conversion had been mainly effected by
such means as these ; that is to say, that, while
languishing upon his couch he had beguiled the
hours of pain by the help of the sacred pictures of
some decorated Life of Christ. On the fourth day
of the second week, the person exercised is to enter-
tain himself with '' a certain historical consideration
of Christ on the one part, and Lucifer on the other,

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 347

each of whom is calling all men to him, to be gath-
ered together under his standard. Then, for the
"construction of the place," there is to be "repre-
sented to us a most extensive plain around Jerusa-
lem, in which our Lord Jesus Christ stands as the
chief general of all good people. Again, another
plain in the country of Babylon, where Lucifer
presents himself as the captain of the wicked and
Grod's enemies." The novice is then instructed " to
imagine before his eyes, in the Babylonian plain,
the captain of the wicked, sitting in a chair of fire
and smoke, horrible in figure, and terrible in coun-
tenance ;" — then it is to be imagined how this prince
of evil, '^ having assembled a countless number of
demons, disperses them through the whole world in
order to do mischief ; no cities or piaces, no kinds
of persons being left free." Then it is to be con-
sidered '' what kind of address he makes to his ser-
vants, whom he stirs up to seize, and secure in
snares and chains, and so draw men (as commonly
happens) to the desire of riches, whence afterwards
they may the more easily be forced down into the
ambition of worldly honor, and thence into the
abyss of pride."

In like manner, ^^ on the opposite sid^, must be
considered our most exalted and excellent leader
and commander, Christ ;" who is seen " in a pleas-
ant plain by Jerusalem ; placed indeed in lowly
State, but very beautiful in form, and in appearance
supremely worthy of love. He, the Lord of the
whole world, sends his chosen apostles, disciples,
and other ministers through the world, to impart to
every race, state, and condition of man His sacred

248 lONATIVS LOYOLA.

and saving doctrine ;" — then it follows, <^ to hear the
exhortatory speech of Christ to all his servants and
firiends, destined to such a work, wherein He bids
them study to help all, and first to take care to lead
them to the spiritual affection of poverty ; and
moreover (if the course of duty to God and the
choice of heaven leads that way) to real and actual
poverty ; then to draw them to the desire of re-
proach and contempt, from which springs the virtue
of humility."

A coUoquy is afterwards to be made by the nov-
ice to the Blessed Yirgin, and " grace is to be im-
plored through her from her Son, that I may be
received and remain under his standard ; and that
first by poverty, either that which is only spiritual,
or further that which consists in the loss of one's
goods" (i. e. the altiication of his property) " if
indeed he shall vouchsafe to call and admit me
thereto — then by contempt or ignominy also I may
imitate Him the more closely," (fcc. " This exer-
cise will be gone through once in the middle of
the nightj and again just before dawn."

We are now nearing the critical point, and that
in relation to which the most solicitude is shown.
On his admission into the Society the professed
person must rid himself, in the most absolute man-
ner, of all property, of all his personal rights and
possessions : henceforward he is individually to
own nothing. But for the purpose of gradually
leading the veiled novice to such a determination,
he is first to imagine three classes of men, each of
whom has acquired ten thousand ducats, with some
other aim than that of the service and love of Qod ;

THE SnRITUAL EXERCISES. S49

bat who now desires to pacify God and to be såyed,
geiting rid, somehow or other, of the hurfful love
of property, as being a " hindrance to salvation."
Then there is to be imagined a ^^ certain place, in
which I may see myself standing with perseverance
before Grod and all the Saints, with the desire of
knowing how I may best please God himself."

Men of the first sort, although they desire to be
rid of the love of property, use no effective means
for that purpose. Those of the second sort go a
step further : but still hold fast the property, and
try rather to draw God to their own wish, than for*
sake this hindrance. But those of the third class
have brought themselves to a state of indifference,
being willing either to part with, or to retain the
property, whichever they shall perceive, either by
the divine motions, or by the dictates of reason, to
be more conducive to the service of God : and in
the meantime to bear themselves as they who have
left all in affection : striving, that is to say, <* to de-
sire neither this nor anything else, except so far ap
the service of God may move them so' as not to ad-
mit any other course of leaving or retaining the
property acquired, except the consideration and de-
sire of serving our Lord Grod better."

To induce this state of indifference is mani&stly
a great point in the Jesuit system throughout. We
do not wish you to make a choice ; we deprecate
your doing so. All we ask is, that you should
bring yourself to a condition of indifference on the
question, and so abide until you shall feel yourself
swayed by the divine will.

A step further on toward the '^ Election" is made

• 11*

250 lONATIUS LOTOLA.

at the close of the second week, by propoundmg
what are termed "Three modes of Humility."
The first is thai which is necessary for salvation,
and wbich demands such a state of submission to
the known will of Grod as that no inducement, not
even the dominion of the whole worid, or the ut-
most danger of life, should avail to lead to a delib-
erate transgression of any law which binds under
the penalty of mortal sin. The second degree of
humility, and which belongs to a greater perfection
consists in that state of absolute indifference in
which the mmd is equally inclined toward riches
and poyerty, honor and ignominy, shortness and
length of Ufe : and this state of indifference is such
that no motive, drawn from either side, would be
a sufficient inducement to commit even a venial mn.
The third mode, belonging to the most perfect hu-
mility, the first and second having already been
obtained — supposes that, even if a regard to the
glory of Grod did not determine this way or that,
yet, "for the sake of the greater imitation of
Christ, I choose rather with him, who was poor,
despised, and mocked, to embrace poverty, contempt,
and the reputation of folly, than wealth, honors,
and the estimation of wisdom."

The spirit of a tortuous casuistry pervades the
preliminary instructions which are to induce the in-
tended "election;" and these instructions we may
perhaps attribute to the hånd of Loyola, and assign
them also to a later date than that of the first com-
position of the book.

The materials of meditation for the third week
are drawn from the^cidents of the Passion; and

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 251

in following these incidents, the same care as before
is taken to engage the sensuous faculty by fixing
upon the mind an image of the way, '^ as rough or
smooth, short or long," and of the place of the sup-
per, " as wide or narrow, plain or ad<^ned and the
like, the way descending first, and of steep ascent ;
also the garden, which must be imagined of a cer*
tain size, shape and nature." In accordance with
this picture-practice of devotion, is that dry speciali-
ty of the directions, how to secure the desired state
of mind in different cases : could rules such as the
following be observed by any but those whose
minds are already broken down by servility and
formality?

If any one wishes to spend a longer time in
meditating on the Passion of Christ, he ought to
complete each contemplation with fewer mysteries;

8o as in the first to include only the Supper

Then the "whole Passion" having been gone over
in one day, " on the following day, he may go over

half of it again, on the third day the rest

On the other hånd, " if any one prefers to short-
en the time, let him contemplate concerning our
Lord's Supper in the night ; concerning the garden
at daybreak," and so forth in detail. During this
week, particular attention is to be given to diet
Bread is a less dangerous aliment than any other :
drink should be restricted carefully : cooked meats
and delicacies are to be very mbderately al-
lowed; and, in a word, so long as the health is not
injured by too much abstinence, the more absti-
nence the better ; all the while the person exercised
may expect some rays of inward knowledge, and

808 leHATIUS LOTOLA.

ecmsolatoiy movements sent within him from heav-
en, by means of which he will easily be able to dis-
tinguish the plan of food which is the more advau-
tageous for hira. All eagerness of appetite, or
haste in taking food is to be avoided, and while
eating we should '< imagine that we see the Lord
Jesus Christ taking food with hb disciples, observ*
ing the plan he fdlows of eating, of drinking, of
looking, and of speaking ; and proposing him fen:
our imitation."

The fourth week takes up the evangelic narra*
tive at the moment of the resurrection, and this
dosing week is to be a æason of refreshment and
exhilaration ; therefore the novice may now throw
<^n his shutters, and *^make use of the advantage
of light and sky which shall offer itself ; as, in the
time of spring and summer the sight of the green
herbs and flowers, and on the agreeableness of a
sunny place ; in the winter, the welcome heat of
the sun, or of a fire, and so concerning the other
suitable satisfactions of the body and mind, by
which I may be able to rejoice together with my
Creator and Redeemer."

Amid this indulged comforting of the body and
mind, the critical business of the '^ election" is si-
lently pushed forward ; and what occurs here, if
no sinister intention were apparent, would call for *
approval. Yet who can foi-get that the issue thus
circuitously aimed at is the palpable affetir of the
novice's abdication of his property? he is taught
thus to profess his willin^ess so to do : " Receiye,
O Lord, my whole liberty : accept my memory,
uoderstanding, and whole will, whatsoever I have

THE SPIRITUAL EXEROISES. 353

or possess, Thou hast given me : this all I restore
to thee, and to thy will, altogether deliver up to be
governed. Give me only the love of Thee, with
Thy grace, and I am rich enough, and desire noth«
ing else beyond."

This fourth week is closed by directions for prac-
tising " Three methods of Prayer." A sample, tak-
ing the last or most peffect, sufficiently exhibits the
quality of this scheme of spiritual exercise.

^' This third method of praying consists in this,
that between the several times of drawing breath I
pronounce the several words of the Lord's or some
other prayer, considering in the meantime either
the signification of the word uttered, or the dignity
of the person to whom the prayer is directed, or my
owu vileness, or lastly the difference between the
two. In the same way the other words must be
proceeded with. One must add also the prayers
above mentioned, Ave, Credo, <fec. Two rules ap-
ply to this matter : the first that having finished the
Lord's Prayer, according to this method of praying,
on other days or hours, we take the Ångelic Salu-
tation, to be gone through, with a similar interval
of respirations, together with the other prayers to
be said in the usual way. The second rule is, that
he who wishes to exercise this method of praying
for a longer time, apply to it all the aforesaid
prayers, or parts of them, and observe similar inter-
stices of breathings and words«"

Such are the '^ Spiritual Exercises" of the Jesuit
Society !

There then foUows what are cailed " The Mys-
teries of the Life of Our Lcnrd Jesus Ghrist," and

254 lONATmS LOYOLA.

which consist of a recitation, in brief, of the inci-
dents of the gospel narrative, with very little of
annotation, and nothing that seems to deserve
citation.

The Exercises of the " Four weeks" coinprise —
so we must think — all that belonged to Loyola's
original book ; in faet thus far it is a digest of his
own course of feeling in passing over that narrow
ground through which the Picture Life of Christ
had led him. So meagre is the stock of scriptural
materials worked up in these Exercises, so strictly
are the allusions confined to the graphic incidents
of the gospel narrative, and so utter is, or seems to
be, the author's ignorance of every thing in the New
Testament, which stands beyond this strait path-
way, that we may reasonably doubt whether he
had, at the time of the composition of the Spiritual
Exercises, ever read, or perhaps ever seen a Bible.
In a book intended to serve as an elaborate course
of discipline in piety,itcan scarcely be imagined
that a writer — if hiraself perfectly conversant with
the pages of the Evangelists, with the Acts, and
with the apostolic epistles — should, for purposes of
excitement and instruction, have availed himself of
absolutely nothing beyond what he might find de-
picted upon a painted window, or upon the margin
of an illuminated missal ! Might not some good
use have beeti made in these Spiritual Exercises of
Christ's discourses — of his discourse with his disci-
ples, as reported by St. John ? Or could nothing
be found profitable " for correction, for reproof, for
instruction in righteousness" in the Epistles, either
of Paul, Peter, James, or John ? If Loyola had

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 255

actually read the Epistles, or indeed if he had read
the Gospels, it is marvellous that he should com-
pose an elaborate practical directory — a manual of
conversion, such as this — in a manner so utterly
abstinent of all scriptural citation or allusion ! The
only supposition that seems admissible, and entirely
consistent with the facts, is the one already haz-
arded — namely, that Loyola's Christianity, at the
time of his conversion, and until he had visited
Paris, had been drawn from no sources more copi-
ous than the Texts, put at the bottom or around the
margin of the decorations of that Life of Christ
with which he had solaced his hours of pain, while
confined in the paternal castle.

But we have at length worked our way through
this picture-book Gospel ; and what next occurs is
of a less puerile character. In faet it displays the
experience of riper years, in the treatment of souls ;
and whetlier attributable to Loyola, or to his col-
leagues, it is of another stamp.

In this supplementary part divers rules, applica-
ble to the discrimination of spiritual symptoms, are
propounded, as indicating what is genuine and what
is spurious in piety. Among these rules this is one
— never to deUberate upon the choice we may have
made, or are about to make, during the season of
spiritual desolation or lifelessness ; but only in hours
of consolation and joy. In hours of spiritual dis-
tress, the soul is " urged on by the evil spirit, by
whose instigation nothing right is ever effected."
Seasons of desolation are appointed to us, as for
other reasons, so for this — that we may be made
intimately to feel " that it is not of our own

256 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

strength to acquire or retain the fervor of devotion,
tbe vehemence of love, the abundance of tears, or
any other inward consolation ; but that all these
things are the gratuitous gifts of God, which, if we
challenge them to ourgelves as our own, we shall
incur the charge of pride and vain glory, not with-
out seriously endangering our salvation."

It has already been affirmed that Jesuitism, not-
withstanding its vehement professions of subservi-
ent obedience to the Vicar of Christ, hangs loose
upon Romanism. The Romish Church has well
understood this precarious submissiveness, and has
shown her mistrust of her obsequious minister ;
and the Society has, once and again, adhered to
its own course, with an almost open contumacy of
resistance. Loyola was gifted with a far-stretching
intellectual sight ; — or with what was equally avail-
able for his guidance — a perfect intuition of the
qualities of things as related, whether essentially or
circumstantially, to the permanence of his own
scheme. That he felt as a principlcj if he did not
foresee as a fcLct, the intrinsic independence of the
Society, may be gathered from indications which,
if they are not the most palpable, are yet not alto-
gether recondite or imaginary. As much as this
may be inferred from the tone and style of certain
rules which he propounds, " to the end that we
may truly feel or think with the Orthodox Church."
Throughout these rules there is apparent an air of
concession made, from motives of prudence or cour-
tesy, to the claims of an independent power. The
rules are conditions of peace, or terms of Mend-

THE SHBITUAL EXERCISES. 357

ship and co-operation, ratified and understood be-
tween neighboring states.

The first of these rules enjoins thai, putting out
of the way all judgment of one'a own, our minds
should always be prepared and held ready to obey
the " true spouse of Christ, and our Holy Mother,
which is the Orthodox, Catholic, and Hierarchical
Church."

There is a difficulty in selecting English phrases
which may correctly convey the whole import of
the Latin phrases — and nothing more — laudare
convenit, laudare plurimum. In the recent English
translaticm of the Spiritual Exercises, these two
words are tamely translated, " it is proper to com-
mend," " it is a fit thing to extol ;" that is to say,
the members of the Society, after having relin-
quished all individual exercise of the reasoning
faculty in relation to things already detarmined by
the Church, should hold themselves ready, as often
as an occasion may arise, to speak in commenda-
tory terms of such and such principles and practi-
ces; — not indeed as if they themselves, on any
grounds of personal eonviction, approved these
things ; for they might do so, or the contrary ; but
they had entered into a compact which bound them
so to receive, to commend, and to extol, whatever the
Church receives, and whatever it enjoins. That
ihis is the true value of the '^ convenit laudare" can
scarcely be doubted, when we find, as presently, to
what a length of intellectual submissiveness these
rules are carried.

It is, then, declared to bé '^ a fit thing" to extol or
commend, — 'Hhe customary confession of sids made

258 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

to the priest, and the receiving the Eueharist, at the
least once every year ; better every week : — the
frequent hearing of Mass — the recitation of Church
/ hymns — ^long prayers in churches, or outside them
— ^and the observance of the canonical hours : — it
is fitting to extol highly — laudare plurimum — the
State of the religions, and to prefer virginity or celi-
bacy to marriage. To approve the vows made by
the religions orders for the observance of chastity,
poverty, and perpetual obedience, along with other
works of perfection and supererogation. It is fit-
ting to praise relics, the veneration and invocation
of the saints ; likewise the stations, pious pilgrim-
ages, indulgences, jubilees, the candles used to be
lighted in churches, and other similar helps to our
piety and devotion. It is fitting to extol the use
of abstinences and fasts, as those of Lent, &c., and
all those voluntary afflictions called penances, as
well the external as the internal. Moreover, to
praise the construction of churches, and their orna-
ments ; also images, as most rightfuUy demanding
to be venerated on behalf of what they represent.
To uphold or sustain all the precepts of the Church,
nor to impugn them in any manner ; but, on the
contrary, to be ready to defend them by reasons
drawn from all sources against those who do im-
pugn them. It is fitting to approve zealously the
decrees, traditions, rites, and manners (lives) of the
Fathers, as well as superiors. And, although there
be not found everywhere that pureness of manners
which ought to be ; yet is it of ill consequence,
either in public preaching or in converse with the
people,^o inveigh against them, inasmuch as the

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 359

doing so breeds damage and scandals, lather than
leads to amendment or any Utility ; and so that noth«
ing ensues but exasperation of the people against prin-
ces and pastors, and a blaming of them. Such in-
vectives are therefore to be repressed. Nevertheless,
while it is of mischievous tendency so to call rulers
in question before the people, and in their absence,
yet is it well privately to admonish tfaose who, if
willing, are able to apply a remedy to the evil. It
is fitting to put the highest value upon the sacred
doctrine as well that which is termed the positive
as the scholastic ; for as it was the aim of the an-
cient holy doctors, such as Jerome, Augustine,
Gregory, and others, to stir up men's minds to the
love and worship of God, so is it the peculiar office
of the blessed Thomas, of Bonaventura, of the
master of the sentences, and of other more recent
theologians, to lay down and define more exactly
the dogmas necessary to salvation in a manner
suited to their own times and to ours, and proper
for the refutation of heresies ; these later doctors
not only being endued with knowledge of Holy
Scripture, but being aided by the writings of the
ancient authors, as well as by the influx of the di-
vine light, and availing themselves also of the de-
crees of councils, and various constitutions of Holy
Ghurch, much to our advantage. It is a practice
to be blamed and avoided, that of instituting com«
parisons between living persons, even of the high-
est merit, and the saints and the blessed ; as to say
of such a one that he is more leamed than Åugus-
tine, that he is another St. Francis, that he is a
match for Paul in sanctity, or the like."

260 IGKATIUS LOYOLA.

The tbirteenth of these rules should have takda
the place of the firet, or of the second, inasmuch as
it deterinines in the clearest manner the value and
meaning of all the rest: — let it then be listened to:
" In order that we may be altogether in conformity
with the Catholic Church, and of the same mind,
we should hold ourselves ready, if in any instance
she has pronounced that to be black, which to our
eyes appears white, to declare that it is so. For it
is undoubtedly to be believed that the spirit of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and the spirit of the Orthodox
Church, his spouse, is the same, and by which spirit
we are governed and guided to salvation. Nor can
we question that it is the same God who, of old,
gave forth the precepts of the Decalogue, who at this
present time instructs and govems the hierarchiai
church."

When mute submission is professed to the decis-
ions of the Church on points of doctrine, nothing
more is tendered than the surrender or abeyance of
the opinion of an individual, to what is regarded as
an authority more valid or trustworthy than can
be any individual judgment. But something alto-
gether different must be intended when the indi-
vidual pledges himself to declare, against the un-
changed and unchangeable evidence of his senses,
that white is black. There is much meaning in the
promise so to pronounce white to be black ; but a
profession of readiness to believe it would be devoid
— we should not say of sincerity or honesty, but —
of all intelligible import. No sense whatever could
be assigned to the words in which such a promise
might be conveyed. Here, then, we find what is

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 261

the value of the Jesuit profession of accordance with
the Romish Church : it is an engagement in all
cases to affirnt^ after the Church ; — as to personal
convictions they are not pledged or implied. The
remaining rules, the 14th,45th, 16th, 17th and ISth,
seem to have foeen subjoined at a later time, and
when it had been found necessary to define the
course which the Society, in discharging its public
functions, should observe so as to steer clear of in-
conveniences and blame in relation to the agitated
questions of predestination, free will, faith, effica-
cious grace, and the pure love of God. It was the
policy pf the Society to hold itself always to a path
where it should be as little as possible committed
to any specific mode of teaching which the Church
might perhaps, at some future time, explicitly con-
demn.

The Spiritual Exercises, we have said, should not
be thought of as a hook^ but as a method. If it
were regarded as a literary work, scarcely could it
pretend to merits of any kind : as to the mass of it,
it is mindless, vapid, jejune, frivolous. But, as a
method^ it has proved itself to be of great efficiency
for the end it has in view. This end, however, we
must not allow to be identical with a genuine reno-
vation of the mind and afiections, or a turning of the
soul from vice to virtue, either in a scriptural or in
a philosophical sense : — it cannot be so allowed, and
for reasons precisely analogous to those which im-
pel us to resent the pretensions of the quack, who

262 lONATIUS LOYOLA.

engages, for a stipulated fee, and in such a time, to
cure any and every disease, how inveterate or ma-
lignant soever, by means of a certain number of his
boxes or phiaLs. The Jesuit Society has manifestly
outstepped the limits of discretion on this ground.
Certainly these are not the times when it will be
easily granted that the inmates of a penitentiary,
promiscuously taken, will infallibly be restored, not
merely to outward good behavior, but to inward
moral health, and be filled with all heavenly graces,
by a twenty-eight days' course of meditation in a
dark chamber !

Nor can it be reasonably demanded of us to grant
that these Exercises, even in those cases in which
the novice is the most favorably disposed toward
whatever is holy, can be serviceable, considered as
an initiation in Christian principles. This cannot
be pretended, for, as to the broad surfacewof Christian
doctrine— in whatever way the text of the New
Testament may be interpreted — ^this book takes no
account of it whatever. The author seems not to
be cognizant of more than two or three articles of
Christian belief. The novice is led or driven along
a path that has been fenced high on either hånd :
he is permitted to see nothing of the country across
which this blind passage is winding its course. So
much of Christianity as may be gleaned or picked
up from the isolated verses that may have been put
under a series of evangelic pictures, is the extent of
what may be leamed from the " Exercises of the four
weeks !" It cannot easily be beUeved that Loyola,
at the time when the Exercises were composed, had

THE SPIRITUAL RXERCISES. 263

himself advanced a step beyond these rudiments of
the Gospel history.

Nevertheless the Spiritual Exercises have been
extensively efficient as a method of religious disci-
pline. The month's work in the cell, together with
the daily visits and instructions of the director, have
had their effect ; and in truth, if among those whose
trembling foot touehes the threshold of a retreat,
there have been some (there may have been many
such) whose minds were already quickened by pun-
gent religious motives, whose consciences were in a
sensitive condition, and whose intentions were sin-
cere — then indeed this metliod, or almost any other
in its stead, could not but take its effect, and would
set the mind and dispositions in some form of fervid
devotion.

But the effect of such a course of discipline, or of
any other, will bear proportion, in a direct ratio, to
the magnitude of the foreseen result ; or to the im-
port of some ulterior consequence. Among those
who in a course of time have submitted themselves
to this training, the larger number, and certainly
the larger portion of those upon whom it has pro-
duced any lasting effect, have entered upon it with
no indistinct forethought of what would be — of what
they wished to be — the next procedure, namely,
their entrance upon the probationary course of a
noviciate ; and then in due order, their taking the
vows, their abjuration of everything earthly, and
the commencement of a. course of life awful in the
view of those who are regarding it in perspective,
and from a distance. The Spiritual Exercises open
this path to the conscious victim ; and they take

S64 lOWATIUS LOYOXJ^.

hold of a spirit already awe-Btricken and iormented
with thai indecisioo whicb precedes an aet which
is far more terrible than would be a suicide.

Does candor compel us to believe that tbose wbo
enter a Jesuit house of retreat do not even dream
of any such issue as this ; or tbat the studied re-
serve of the director does really avail to preclude the
entrance of any such supposition ? It is not with-
out amazement that one finds instructions in the
Directorium, which, except in one instance in a
thousand, must be an utter mockery — and which
on the part of the director, must imply a shameless
imposition. The superintendents of Jesuit colleges
and the rectors of houses are reminded that, while
it is a signal work of charity to induce ad many
souls as possible to undergo this sanative pro-
cess, yet that much caution and discretion are
needed in soconducting themselves toward any wbo
may incline to make trial of it, as not to engender
the remotest suspician that anything is thought of
beyond the immediate refreshment or renovation of
the mind. No soUcitude, no importunity is to be
indicated on the part of the director, smd with spe-
cial care is be to look to it that no ground of sur-
mise be aiforded, as if "we wished to draw the
person toward the religions state." Fit occasions
sbould be waited for, sudden opportunities are to
be embraced, and tbose occasions are to be seized
upon when the novice is perceived to be labor-
ing with uneasy reflections upon his own spiritual
condition, or when he is depressed by worldly
anxieties, and by the ill-succéss of his secular em-
ployments. The director is to mention known in-

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 265

Stances of the happy effect of a monthls discipline ;
but in the choice of such examples he is carefuUy
to abstain from any allusion to those wlio, in conse-
quence of this training, have entered the Society, or
taken the vows of soine other r eligious order. Those
rather are to be named who have returned to a secu*
iar course of life, yet benefited by the discipline ;
otherwise it is more than probable that the party we
have in view may take the alarm, and draw off
from the Exercises.

These indications of an astute and tortuous, not
to say wily discretion, meet the eye at the outset,
and are apparent at every turn in the early history
of the Society. The most impartial eye involun-
tarily notices this species of circuitous management
as the constant charæteristic of the Jesuit Institute.
The Directorium, even if interpreted in the most
candid manner, and with a philosophic readiness to
allow to evei-y institute the largest license which
its own principles seem to challenge for it, cannot
be regarded in any other Ught than as the germi-
nating rudiment of all those ambiguous practices
which, in later times, have heaped opprobrium upon
the Society.

This manual of spiritual discipline enjoins the
functionaries who are to superintend the process,
when they have secured their victim (must we not
use the phrase ?) to seclude him from all intercourse
with his relatives — ^to interdict all correspondence,
and to cut him off from every earthly tie. He is
then told to throw himself ^r^^ upon the divine
bounty, without reserve, wiUing to obey whatever
may in the end appear to be the will of God as 4o

12

266 lONATIUS LOYOLA.

his future course of life, and next, to put himseif
iato the hånds of his director, as the interpreter of
heaven toward him — opening his bosom to the in-
spektion of so skilful an eye, and attempting to con-
ceal nothing from so kind and wise a friend.. Most
strictly is he to obey the instructions of his director,
not allowing even a thought to wander from off
that path of meditation which is traced out for
every hour of each day. To reUeve a liule the
monotony of these exercises^ a Uttle reading may
be permitted ; but it is to be such only as the direc-
tor shall appoint. No other hooks are to enter the
cell than the Breviary and Office of the Virgin, if
the person be a priest ; or he may be indulged with
a portion of Gerson, a passage from the Gospels, or
some select passages from the Lives of the Saints.
As to the Grospels, nothing is to be read at any time
beyond the passage in the " Mysteries of the Life
of Christ," appointed for the day and. hour. To
these may be added, if needful, a passage from
Dionysius the Carthusian, or from the Confessions
of Augustine. A similar restraint is to be sub-
mitted to as to anything written. The novice,
confined to his cell, is to see only his director, and
one attendant, who ministers to his wants daily,
but who is forbidden to hold conversation with ym
on any subject not relating to his food or personal
comfort. This attendant is carefully to report to
the director whatever occurs in these interviews.
In certain instances, and where it seems desirable
to invite the person exercised to a more free opening
of his mind, sorae discreet friend may be invited to
visit him, An exact knowledge of human nature,

THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. 267

together with a nice perception of what is fitting to
persons of every class, shows itself throughout
these instructions. All this$ knowledge of the heart,
all this perception of the occult peculiarities of in-
dividual temperament, and all this practical wis-
dom are brought to bear upon that which is con-
fessedly the main end and intention of this system
of discipline — ^namely, the inducing those whom
the superiors may think fit to invite into the bosom
of the Society to surrender themselves — their earthly
well-being, their conscience, their intelligence^ their
faith and hope— to its care, keeping, and service.
The Directorium exhibits the most intense anxiety
in digesting and expressing the instructions which
bear upon this one object.

It is not indiscriminately that such a proposal as
that of entering the Society should be made: in
faet it is to those only whose personal fitness in-
cludes qualities and conditions of no ordinary sort.
Of course no such invitation is to be given to any
who are bound to a course of life by ties which
cannot properly be broken ; as those of matrimony,
or rank, or ofiice; nor to any who are already
joined to some religions order. Nor to any is this
election to be propounded in whose temperament
there appears to be any levity, or inconstancy, or
whose propensities are ungovemable, or their dis-
position malign, or who are of an incorrigible
mould ; unless indeed, in any such instances, the
contrary indications of grace are of an extraordi-
nary kind. There must be manifested also a cor-
dial desire in the party toward that course of life
which the Society propounds to him. Never must

268 lONATIUS LOYOLA.

any one who is reluctant be driven forward into it.
There are difficulties enough to contend with, even
where the affections are the most fervently set upon
this course : how much more when a hearty wiU is
wanting in the individual ! Unless the novice has
reached that third mode of humility which consists
in an absolute indifference towards things earthly,
and a desire of nothing but that which God wills,
there is little room to look for a favorable issue.

That the issue should be favorable, in a large pro-
portion of instances when thus carefully selected, is
natural and quite easy to be believed. As to the
result of a month^s g(&clusion and 4iscipline, under
the hånd of a director, in the case of secular per-
sons, who have no thought of entering the Society,
it is probably very nearly analogous to that produced
upon the general health by a month's release from
business at the sea-side. Men wishing and intend-
ing to refresh their religions feelings, betake them-
selves to one of these much-reputed spiritual hospi-
tals : they give themselves up, heartily, to the far-
famed process, they submissively invite the physi-
cian of souls to do his best for them — and they come
forth pretty well satisfied with the result. It would
be a matter of curious inquiry to leam what pro-
portion of persons it is who are found willing to
submit themselves to the Spiritual Exercises a
second time, and a third.

But the meaning and value of this scheme of re-
ligions training is to be estimated on another prin-
ciple, if we are thinking of those who, in bending
their steps toward a house of the Society, do so with
the avowed or with the concealed purpose of conse-

THE SPIRITUAL EXEROISES. 269

crating themselves to its service« This intention,
even though it amount to scarceiy more than a
latent and slumbering wish — a wish from which the
mind recoils, if at any time it presents itself dis-
tinctly — operates to enhance a hundred fold the
force of all those powers of working upon the im-
agination and the feelings which the Exercises may
call into play.

It is the Jesuit scheme of life, with its infinite
and undefined ambition, and Hs tremendous condi-
tions, which make the Spiritual Exercises what
they are found to be as an effective religions disci-
pline. These eight and twenty days' meditations
might have been thrown into any one of a himdred
imaginable forms, each of which would have beeu
nearly equal to any other in efficiency- — supposing
only that the conditions were the same. What we
have before us is a method of producing intensity,
which is rendered such by ^. forethought of its issue.
In protestant communities we see around us little or
nothing of the deepest emotions, except in rare and
individual instances ; and this deficiency of emotion
is easily accounted for, inasmuch as protestant in-
stitutions do not include, nor do they allow, those
soul-stirring immolations, the contemplation and
practice of which generates intensity, and foments
it, and gathers it fiom the wide surface of society,
around certain visible centres. Protestant com-
munions do not sanction •these immolations, not
because earnest religions feeling is not in itself
good ; but because th^se monstrous devices for ob-
taining and for cherishing it are unwarrantable ab-
stractedly, and have beeh proved, by ample and

270 lONATIUS LOYOLA.

long-continued experiment, to be of pernicious ten-
dency, and to be destructive of the diffused and
healthful influences of the Gospel upon society at
large : they cost too mucb»

Tbe Spiritual Exercises of Loyola would prove
themselves to be nothing better than what they in-
trinsically are — a vapid inanity, if separated from
those things which impart to them a terrible energy.
It is undoubtedly true, tberefore, that, '^bits and
particles of the Gatbolic system cannot be thus de-
tached with impunity and incorporated with anotber
system."* If over against the Spiritual Exercises
we were to set up the ascetic principles — the mo-
nastic vows, the practice of conféssion, the tremen-
dous powers left in the bands of the priest, the awful
authority of the Church — then such exercises as
those of Loyola will at once be endowed with that
wpnderfiil power and eflicacy which is attributed to
them.

Yet even then, certain conditions would be
wanted which no monastic institute, founded on the
ancient ascetic principle, could furnish. These ob-
solete orders were most of them anchoretic as well
as ascetic. Each was a scheme of seclusion from
the world (more or less so) and as such each draw
toward itself — seldom the robust or enterprising
portion of the community ; but more often the Ian-
guid, the melancholic, the satumine, the morose,
the debilitated. the disappointed, the misanthropic.
In direct contrariety to this, Jesuitism is a scheme
devised for taking a position upon the very ground
of the world's busiest movements. The Society has

* Wiseman's Preface.

THE SPIRITUAL EJXBRCSSES. 371

built for itself a fortress in the centre of a field
whereon a boundless secular ambition might seek
and find for itself the choicest opportunities. It was
a consequence, therefore, sure to foUow, that it
should draw to itself — not the feeble, but the strong ;
not those who were sick of the world, but those who
are eager to play their parts in it. As to the weak,
the timid, and the inert, the Society has no cells for
such ; it turns them adrift as speedily as possible :
it is a gymnasium, not an infirmary ; and not only
doee it insensibly draw into its vortex the most en-
ergetic spirits, but it is constantly employed in cast-
ing its own net over the waters of common Ufe ; and
at each draught its rule is to take the good to itself
and to cast the bad away.

The result then which has foUowed, is what is
naturai and necessary : that which would be intense
even while the feebler elements of society only were
wrought upon, will become so in a tenfold propor-
tion when it is the robust always upon which it
tries its powers.

Those energies, therefore, intellectual, moral and
political, which the society, in its brightest times,
has developed, are attributable, not to any intrinsic
properties attaching to the ^^ Exercises" which are
its germ, but to those conditions of the Institute
which distinguish it from every other analogous
association. These points of distinction result in
part from the more severe or thorough-going inter-
pretation which was put by Loyola upon some of
the ancient ascetic doctrines ; in part, also, from a
politic relaxation of those very doctrines when-
ever his idterior purpose would not consist with a

272 IGNATIUS LOTOLA,

rigid enforcement of tbem ; and in part, and chiefly,
from his baving propounded an end thai was strong-
ly contrasted with that of the monastic orders ; —
an end distiiictly practical, essentially secular, and
such as would invite and employ the most active
class of minds.

The three vows of initiation do not include either
any new principle, or any ostensible deviation from
existing and ancient practices ; but in their inter«
pretation and in their consequences, as applied in a
manner so novel, two of tbem at least were innova-
tions. But that which in the most important sense
has placed Jesuitism at an immeasurable distance
in advance of any monastic order, is the all-em-
bracing interpretation put by Loyola's own band
upon the vow and doctrine of obedience.

CHAPTER II.

THE LETTER ON OBEDIENCE.

This doctrine, so far as it applies to the under-
standing and common sense of the individual, is
summarily expressed in the rule, lately cited, which
enjoins that, when the Church has pronounced
black to be white, we are so to think and speak,
notwithstanding the evidence of our senses to the
contrary. The same rule, moreover, is aptly and
intelligibly illustrated by Loyola's own exemplifica-
tion of it, when he knowingly ieft himself to be
slaughtered by an incompetent medical attendant.
We find it, however, elaborately explained and ex-
panded in a letter addressed by him to the Jesuits
of Portugal; and to this letter, as on the whole
more significant than any other document of the
Institute, the most exact attention should be given.
The Jesuitism of the Jesuit Institute is condensed
within the compass of this notable letter. It was
addressed to the Portuguese houses at a late time
in Loyola's govemment of the Society ; that is to
say, in the year 1553, and only three years before
bis death; it may therefore be regarded, and in
this light it has always been regarded by the Soci-
ety — as an authoritative expression of the founder's
matured judgment in relation to a principle to which
he himself and his coUeagues attached paramount

12*

274 lONATIUS LOYOLA.

importance. The letter is addressed "To the
brethren of the Society of Jesus, who are in Portu-
gal, grace and love eternal in Christ the Lord."

The General, after an exordium of customary
courtesy, reminds his brethren of what he had here-
tofore and always taught them, namely, that obe-
DiENCE is the first of all Christian vutues, inasmuch
as it is from this that all other graces and excellences
take their rise. " Without regret," says he, " may
we see ourselves surpassed by other religious orders
in the fasts and vigils they observe, and in the se-
verity of those practices which each, according to
its rule, piously adheres to. But it is my wish to
see all those who within this Society devote them-
selves to the service of God, distinguishing them-
selves by a true and perfect obedience, an abdication
of will and judgment. I would that every true and
genuine son of the Society should be known by this
very mark, that he looks not to the person to whom
(immediately) he yields obedience ; but (always)
that he sees in him the Lord Christ, for whose sake
that obedience is rendered. Obedience is to be ren-
dered to a Superior, not on account of his wisdom,
goodness, or any other such like qualities with
which he may be endowed ; but solely because he
is in God's place, and wields the authority of Him
who says — *• they that hear you^ <fcc. Nor, on the
other hånd, is anything to be abated from this obe-
dience on the ground that the Superior may be
wanting in prudence or discretion ; for he claims
it as siiperior, and as filling the place of Him whose
wisdom can never be at fault, and who will make
up whatever may be wanting in his minister, whether

THE LETTER ON OBEDIENCE. 275

he lack probity, or any otber virtue. Even as Christ
has expressly said, speakiag of the Scribes and Phar-
isees, they have sat in Moses' seat."

This principle, thus generally enounced, is sus-
tained by several citations of Scripture. Most ear-
nestly does the General desire that his brethren
should understand and intim ately feel this as true
— that the obedience which contents itself with the
exterior aet of doing what has been enjoined is al-
together aninferior and imperfect sort of obedience,
not worthy to be called a virtue — ^not until it has
reached that farther point at which the will of the
Superior is made one's own, and is so identical with
it, as that not only in the palpable eiTect it is the
same, but that also in the inward affection, there is
a perfect agreement of sentiment. So that the two
— the Superior and the inferior will the same thing,
or will it not ; according to that* word — "to obey is
better than sacrifice," or that saying of St. Gregory,
" in a sacrifice it is the flesh of another that is im-
molated ; in obedience it is our own will ;" and so
much the more as this part of our nature has dig-
nity and importance, is the immolation of it of
great price.

"Any deviation from the will and injunction of
the Superior on the pretext which is so specious —
of going beyond what is commanded, in things ab-
stractedly good and commendable, is nevertheless
to be accounted a disobedience, prompted by an er-
roneous principle, and fraught with danger. Noth-
ing is acceptable to God which is not strictly con-
formable to the mind and intention of him who is
in God's place toward ourselves. Your own will

276 I0NATIU8 LOYOLA.

lay dowD — ^freely return to your Creator, through
his ministers, that liberty with which he has en-
dowed you ; dedicate it to Him. Think it no mean
fruit of that free wiil whic^ you have received from
Him, if it enables you, by obedience, to return it
entire to Him. In doing so you do not lose it — you
augment and bring it to perfection. In conforming
yourselves absolutely to the Divine will, as inter-
preted to you by him who stands in God's place to-
ward you, you are certain that all your voUtions are
in harmony with the most sure rules of rectitude.
Take care that you never.attempt to bend or mould
the will of your Superior, which you should esteem
as the will of God, to your own will. This is to in-
vert the order of the divine wisdom ; — ^it is an en-
deavor to bring the divine will into conformity with
your own. How are those blinded by self-love who,
while thinking theitiselves obedient, go about by some
show of reason to bring the Superior to will what
they will ! On the contrary, whoever would immo-
late himself without reserve to God, must offer to
Him, not his will merelys but his intelligence (or
understanding) also, which is the third and higher
grade of obedience ; so that he not only wills what
the Superior wills, but thinks as he thinks, submit-
ting to him his own judgmentso far as it is possible
for a devoted wUl to bend the intellect."

We should especially notice Loyola's interpreta-
tion of the mental constitution of man, as related to
his doctrine of obedience : he says — " Albeit the in-
tellect is not endowed with that sort or degree of
Uberty which attaches to the will, and is in its na-
ture impelled to yield assent to that which seems to

\

THE LETTEtl ON OBEDIENCE. 277

it to wear the appearance of tnith, yet are there many
occasions on which, as the evidenee of truth is not
absolutely irresistible, the will may throw its pre-
ponderating weight into this scale or the otfaer.
Now in all such instances^ he who professes the
doctrine of obedience is bound to incline his judg-
ment to that of his Superior."

It is on this principle that the Society builds its
practice; for it teaches that when, in the judgment
of' the inferior, the evidence of truth preponderates
on this side, or on that, if the Superior, not as sur
perior, but as doctor orteacher, dedares there to be
a probability, how small soever, that the balance of
evidence may be on the other side, then the case is
brought within those conditions under which the
will may throw its weight into the scale, on either
side, and therefore may overbear the evidence of
truth.

In a word, if obedience be a sort of holocaust, in
which the enthe man, without withholding any-
thing, offers himself to his Creator and Lord, by the
hånd of his ministers, in the fires of love — if it be
an entire renunciation of oneself, in which the re-
ligions fteely relinquishes all right in, and over him-
self, so that the divine Providence, by the hånd of
the Superior, govems and possesses him, it thence
follows, unquestionably, that obedience includes, not
mferely the execution of commands, nor that com-
pliance of the will which renders the outward aet
properly spontaneous, but also a resignation of the
judgment ; so that whatever the Superior commands
and beJieves should, to the inferior, seem right and

278 lONATIVS LOYOLA.

true — so far, as already said, as the.will byits own
power is able to bend the understanding.

Well were it, says the General, if men could re-
ceive this doctrine of obedience, of the mind and
understanding, agreeable as it is to God, and indis-
pensable to those who live under religious obliga-
tions. Among the celestial bodies the lesser yield
themselves to the influence of the greater, with a
perfect order and harmony ; and thus among men
should the inferiors allow themselves to be carried
forward by the will of the superior, so as that the
virtue of the upper may permeate the lower spheres ;
this CAn only be when the will and judgment of the
inferior entirely accords with the will and ju(|^ment
of the superior. "Lean not to your own under-
standing," say the Scriptures ; and if in things of
this life it be the part of prudence in the opinion
of the wise, to submit our judgments to the di-
rection of those wiser than ourselves, how much
more proper is this in things spiritual, and when
one has surrendered himself to a Superior, as stand-
ing toward us in the place of God, and as the in-
terpreter of the divine mind.

"Apart from this submission of the intellect,
neither the compUance of the will, nor the obedi-
ence of the outward aet can be what it ought. We
are so constituted as that the appetitive faculties
should foUow the apprehensive faculties (that we
should desire and foUow after those things which
the mind perceives to be desirable) ; nor can it be
but by a sort of force that the will continues long to
foUow where the judgment repugnates. A man
may for a while, from an ordinary feeling of com-

THE LETTER ON OBEBIENCE. 279

pliance, eonform himself to what he thinks an un-
reasonable behest ; but this sort of obedience has
notbing in it that is åxed and st^ady : it will fail
after a while, or at least in the perfection of obedi-
ence which is shown in alacrity and readiness.
What alacrity can there be where the will and
mind (commander and commanded) are at vari-
ance ? If onc hesitates and doubts whether it be
desirable or not desirable to dq what is commanded,
there is no zeal, no celerity. That noble simplicity
of a blind obedience is gone, when we allow our-
selves to question whether that which is commanded
be right or wrong, and when perbaps we blame the
Superior who commands us to do what is not agree-
able to us. Humility, too, is gone, for although on
one hånd we obey, on the other (by exercising our
own judgment in the case) we set ourselves above
the Superior. And thus also all constancy, or firm-
ness, on diflicult occasions, is lost. In a word, all
the force and dignity of this virtue is thus lost ; and
in their place come pain, unquietness, sluggishness,
lassitude, murmurings, excuses, and those vices
which destroy all the price and merit of obedience.
^< But an obedience perfect and acceptable to the
Lord, is shown in the first place, because in it is
consecrated to Him the most excellent and precious
part of the man (the intellect), aQd next, because
in this manner a living holocaust, grateful td the
Divine Majesty, is offered — the man retaining noth-
ing of himself; and lastly, because the difficulty
of such a contest is great : — ^he who thus obeys
breaks, as it were, himself, for God, and runs coun-
ter to that natural impulse, deep seated in every

280 lONATIUS LOTOLA.

boeom, and which impels every one to embrace and
pursue his own purpose (or desire). Hence it is,
that obedience, while it seems to be a perfection of
the will, rendering a man always prompt and ready
to yield to the nod of the Superior, yet should ex-
tend, as we have said, to the intellect or under-
standing, leading it to think as the Superior thinks ;
and thus all the powers of the will and of the mind
being in concord, there follows a quick and com-
plete execution of the task.

^' But it is asked, how is this virtue to be attained ?
There is nothing arduous for the humble — nothing
rough for the meek ; nor shall the divine grace and
aid be wanting to those who possess these virtues.
As helps in the endeavor to acquire this perfect
obedience, these three rules are to be kept in mind
—Jirstj not to see in the person of the Superior a
man, liable to errors and to miseries ; but Christ
himself, who is wisdom in perfection, goodness un-
bounded, love infinite; whoneithercanbedeceived,
nor is willing to deceive any. Ånd inasmuch as
you are conscious that it is for the love of God that
you have yielded yourselves to the yoke of obedi-
ence, so that the more surely, while following the
will of the Superior, you may follow the divine will,
doubt not that the Lord will continue to guide you
by means of those whom he has placed over you,
and ihus lead you in the right path. Wherefore^
in the voice of the Superior, hear the voice of Christ ;
as says Paul in addressing the Colossians, &c., or
as says St. Bernard, &c,

" The second rule, the observance of which will
preclude any inward murmurings, or the tendency

THE LETTER ON OBEDIENCE. 281

to blame the Superior, is to cherish an afTectiooate
zeal, ready to fulfil any of his behests ; thus each
aet of obedience, instead of being attended with
uneasiness, will yield you pleasure and joy.

" Lastly, a means easy and safe, of subjugating
the judgment, is that which was a habit with the
holy Fathers, — namely, to fix it in your mind that
whatever the Superior commands, is the order and
will of God himself ; and as when you are required
to bélieve according to the Catholic faith, you bend
your whole will and mind to do so, in like manner
in bringing yourøelves to perform the order — ^let it
be what it may — of the Superior, a certain blind im-
pulse, of an eager will shall bear you forward, with-
out giving space for inquiry. Thus did Abraham
obey when commanded to offer up his son; and
thus, in the times of the New Testament {i, e, un-
der the Christian dispensation) did a holy Father
exercise this virtue, as recorded by Cassian. As for
instance, the abbot John, who inquired not whether
that which he was ordered to do was useful, or not :
but continued daily throughout a year, and with
great labor, to water the dead stump of a tree ; nor
did he ask even whether it was possible or not, as
when he applied his whole strength to effect the re-
moval of a huge block of stone, to which the united
strength of many could have been unequal. This
sort of obedience has, in some cases, received the
divine approval by means of miracles. As not to
mention instances which yourselve« are aware of,
that of St. Maur, a Benedictine, may be named,
who, when at the command of his Superior, he
walked into a lake, did not sink; or that of one

282 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

who, commanded by his Superior to bring him a
lioness, went and caught il, and brought it to bim,
Such is the method of bringing the judgment into
subjection, and of approving, without hesitation,
every command of the Superior, not manifestly sin-
ful, which hoiy men have observed, but which those
who desire to attain to a perfect obedience will im-
itate.

'^ Nevertheless, if after all, something still pre-
sents itself which is at variance with the decisions
of the Superior, you are not fbrbidden — having
sought guidance from the Lord — ^to mention it.
But that you may not be deceived by self-love, and
your private judgment, you are bound, both before
making such a representation and afterwards — not
merely to hold your mind in a state of even readi-
ness to go ou with, or to abandon, the affair in
question, but also to approve the decision of the
Superior, and to think it preferable to your own
opinion.

'^ That which has been said conceming obedience
appUes, not merely to the conduct of individuals to-
ward their immediate Superiors, but to that also of
the Rectors and local Superiors toward the Provin-
cials, to that of the Provincials toward the General,
and to that of the General toward him whom God
has set over him — ^namely, the Lord's vicar ori
earth. And it is thus that the gradation of orders
throughout is preserved ; as well as peacé and
charity, without which neither our Society nor any
other community can maintain within itself a right
govemment ; and thus it is that the Divine Provi-
dønce orders all things easily — controUing the low-

THE LETTER ON OBEDIENCE. 283

est ranks by tneans of those next above them, these
by the higher, and leading all to accomplish His
own purposes. Such, no doubt, is the principle of
order in the angelic hierarchy — such among the
celestial bodies — such in every well constructed
polity on earth, and such, especially, is the eccle-
siastical hierarchy, within which everything pro-
ceeds from, and is related to, the one vicar of the
Lord Christ, where the movement originating at
the centre is communicated to the extremities. By
so much as this disposition of things is accurately
regarded, any system of government is good ; and,
on the contrary, negligence on this ground brings
with it, as every one sees, the heaviest evils to
human societies. Therefore it is, that, as God has
intrusted to me the care and ordering of this So-
ciety, I am anxiously concerned that this virtue
(obedience) should be practised, and should flourish,
inasmuch as the well-being and safety of th« Society
thereupon depend. Labor therefore with ardor, and
in hope of victory, thus to conquer yourselves, thus
to vanquish and subdue the loftiest and most diffi-
cult part of yourselves — ^your will and judgment ; so
that a true knowledge and love of God may lead
your souls to Him, and may, throughout the course
of your pilgrimage on earth, govem you, that you
and those whom you may aid by your example may
attain to eternal blessedness."

The doctrine of obedience (so called) as thus ex-
pounded and enforced by Loyola, in this letter, is
the nucleus of the Society — it is the law of all its
laws, and the guiding principle of its administration.
Abstractedly, and even as expressed in the most

384 I6NATIUØ LOYOLA«

extravagant manner, the doctrine was not new
among the religions orders ; in tnith Loyola might,
to a far greater extent than he has attempted it,
have cited passages from the writings of the monas-
tic founders, falling Uttle short, if at all, of his own
tremendous consistency. The' difference between
him and his predecessors, on this ground, is less in
language and tone than in the practical bearing of
the doctrine. The obsequious St. Maur of a mon-
astery might well be left, by the wide world, to
water stumps through the year, or alternately to
dig holes, and to fill them again, in the monastery
garden, year after year. The abjectness of this
obedience was quite in harmony with the inanity
of the system of which it was a part, and to which
it was confined. The good abbot, and his good
monks (let us now think of them as good) and
their occupations, and their round of prayers, were,
one and all, well cemented together by a doctrine
of utter passivity, such as we have just heard Lo-
yola enforcing. The open world was little^ if at
all, affected by the existence, within monastery
walls, of monastery virtues, or of ascetic absurdi-
tiec. And, as those of the religions orders which,
through laxity of rule, or from principle and prac-
tice, diffused themselves throughput society, they
left behind them, in so doing, the most characteris-
tic of the monastic virtues, and lost influence pro-
portionately.

But this same principle of unreasoning and un-
scrupulous subserviency tø the will of a Superior,
how different a thing does it become when it is
Ufted into the place of sovereign importance in a

THE LETTER ON OBEDIENCE. 285

Society that has been constituted for the very pur-
pose of laying an ambitious hånd upon the things
of the world, and of fixing itself upon every human
interest, with an unrelenting grasp !

The Jesuit Society has not hesitated to signalize
its doctrine of obedience, as the germ and the vital
principle of its Institute ; and in the Constitutions
the most extreme positions that are assumed in tlie
Letter, are firmly maintained, and lucidly ex-
pounded with illustrations the most apt and forcible.
The way in which this master principle has been
expanded and explained by Jesuit writers of a later
we have nothing now to do with : it is Jesuitism, time
such as its Founder made and left it, that is our
subject. When the time comes that this scheme
shall have fallen into its place on the page of history,
and is no longer regarded either with favor, preju-
dice, or alarm, the " Letter on Obedience" will be
read as a sample, nowhere to be matched, of har-
monious incoherence, and of refined absurdity.
Loyola's was a mind of exquisite subtilty, but
whoUy w^anting in the philosophic faculty of ab-
straction ; and hence it is that we may exonerate
him from the charge of designedly going about to
establish his Society upon principles which he knew
to be false and vicious. In faet, these principles
were, in the last degree, false and immoral ; but at
the point of view whence he looked upon them —
foreshortened from the low level of his own moral
standing, he saw none of their contrarieties ; he
saw only their adaptation to a special end.

The most obvious of the objections to which this
Letter is liable, is the outrageOus misuse, which is

286 lONATIUS LOTOLA.

made ihroughout it, of the leading term — Obe-
DiENCE. The Jesuit is taught that be is to yield
himself to the will of his superior — perinae cadavcr ;
and because the idea of a corpse is naturally asso-
ciated with a recollection of the faculties and powers
that had belonged to the living man, the absurdity
of attributing to the lifeless body a quality which
could attach only to the man, is a little veiled from
our view. Nor can mischief arise from the illusion,
if it belong only to a loose metaphoric style ; but
when it comes to be worked up, in a stringent form,
as a rule of practice, the enormity of the sophism
reaches a pitch beyond all power of estimation. To
talk of the obedience of a staff in the band, or of the
obedience of a coipse, is a sort of fantastic nonsensé,
which would be quite undeserving of criticism, if it
had not long and extensively been employed in sus-
taining a pernicious practice.

Loyola, who had conceived the idea of a factitious
condition of the moral and intellectual man, suited
to his purposes, could find no term fitly conveying
that idea, simply because the condition itself being
monstrous and contradictory, it has had no name
assigned it in any language : it is a nihility, equally
impracticable, and inconceivable ; it is a triangle of
four sides. Nevertheless a moral term must needs
be selected, and Loyola, himself deluded, more than
intending to delude, called his chimera — Obe-
dience.

By a license of speech — ^pardonable in cases where
no consequences result from it — we employ the word
so improperly as to say that the sculptor's chisel
obeys his band; but it would be an insufferable

THE LETTER ON OBEDIENCE. 287

afTectation to use the abstract term obedience, in
such an instance, as if the tool were consciously
fraught with a moral quality. Nor may we stretch
the proprieties of speech so far, as to apply the ab-
stract term even to the band of the artist: the
band, it is true, obeys the mind: but how jejune
would it be to commend the band for its obedience ;
and scarcely less so to speak of the obedience of a
well-trained horse ; although, by an admissible ana-
logy, we say he obeys the band and leg of his rider.
The fiery, yet obsequious animal, while yielding
himself to the will of his rider, knows nothing of
obedience, because his nature does not iuclude that
moral liberty which is the source and soul of the
yirtue so named.

The very phrase — passive obedience, is a pedan-
tic solecism, which has been tolerated too long ; and
when it is attempted to define and describe this
obedience, as that of a corpse, or of a walking-stick,
then the outrage so committed upon language, and
upon common sense, is beyond endurance. The
same peremptoryobjection holds good against every
attempt, under shelter of a variation in the terms,
to give currency to the like absurdity. " Unccm-
ditional obedience" — "obedience — as a holocaust
of the intellect, as well as of the will," and the Uke,
are phrases utterly absurd in philosophy, and of per-
nicious import in morals : with equal propriety might
we commend ihe devotion of a zealous messenger
who, before he set out on his destined journey,
should amputate his feet, and offer them to his em-
ployer, as evidence of his willingness to acquit him-
øelf of his task !

y

288 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

The base obsequiousness of a debauched mind
may indeed impel an inferior to offer to his master
what is cailed — " passive obedience ;" and a recip-
rocal baseness in the master, or his ignorance, may
induce him to accept, and to avail himself of, so
nefarious a tender. But it is manifest that he who
yields to a beihg like himself that which the Lord
of all refuses to accept, is devoid of a-due sense of
the nature and grounds of moral obligation.

Loyola did not violate the proprieties of language
until after he had, within his own mind, misappre-
hended and distorted every notion of morality and
religion. What it was which he needed in the
agents who were to give pffect to his polity, he saw
clearly enough ; but he did not see that this condi-
tion was, in the sense in which he thought of it, a
thing impossible ; and that, so far as it might, in
any sense, be possible and practicable, it is fatal to
the conscience ; and not less so to the understand-
ing. It may be said that a man who freely enters
a community is free, in doing so, to make over, or
to mortgage, as well his bodily agencies as his men-
tal powers to its service, receiving in return what
he is contented to regard as an equivalent : if we
grant this, and it can be conceded only in a sense
strictly limited, it can never be conceded that a man
is at liberty to sell his soul to another. A selling
of the aoul, whether it be the entire surrender of
present and future wellbeing, or imply only what is
indeed less tremendous, but not less immoral — a
consenting to the dedication of some one or more of
the faculties of our moral and intellectual constitu-
tion, — ^is a transaction which nothing can warrant.

THE LETTER ON OBEDIENCE. 289

If 8uicide be a crime — and who but the atbeist
questioas ibis ? — ^so would be tbe amputation of a
limb, for no surgical reason ; and so would it be a
crime, and a frightful impiety, to swallow a di ug
for tbe purpose of effi^cting a paralysis of one side,
or tbe extinction of a sense — of sight or of bearing.
But is not man's individual mind and conscience,
witb its involmitary convictions of trutb and virtue,
a faculty, and an element of bumån nature ? is not
the understanding--^is not the intuition of first prin-
ciples, an ingredient of our nature ? is not the free-
dom pf the will a sacred bestowment, which every
responsible being bas received from bis Maker?
What shall a man accept in exchange, eitber for his
soul, or for any one of its elementary prerogatives ?
Neither his soul, nor any of its powers, is really at
his disposal ; for not only aie these powers, in
themselves, beyond all price ; but if a price could
be adduced that should be their equivalent, in
whole or in part, the offer could not be listened
to — the proposal is a blasphemy; and it is a
blasphemy in the intention, notwitbstanding that
such an intention could never actually be carried
out.

It is on this ground, apparently, that Loyola de-
luded himself so strangely, and thus led his Society,
unconsciously into, and left it in the deepest quag-
mire of religions perversion.

His mind was penetrating, but, as we have said,
not philosophic : tbe Letter before us exhibits a pro-
found adroitness in the management of human na?
ture ; but not the cleamess or straightforwardness
of a soundly coustituted understanding. He does

13

290 lONATIUS LOYOLA.

not seem at all alive, either to the immorality of the
scheme he was digesting — for he iasinuates no apot-
ek for it — ^nor to the illusory quality of the transfer
that is made when it is attempted to buy and to
sell individual conscience and intellect. The most
obvious tniths on this ground, he did not recognize ;
such as that the human soul may be lost, but that
it cannot either be sold, or be mad^ a gift of to
another : that conscience may be bound, or may be
slaughtered, but cannot be transferred to another's
keeping. He did not know that moral responsi-
bility, instead of being shifted entirely from one to
another, or instead of being shared between two,
each taking a half, or a proportion, is doubled when-
ever it is attempted to be transferred, or to be de-
posited, or to be pawned.

An utter forgetfulness of these first principles of
morals — or an entire ignorance of them, an igno-
rance chargeable in great measure upon the system
under which Loyola had been trained, vitiates the
Jesuite lostitute throughout, and shows itself por-
tentously in the " Letter on Obedience." Need it be
proved that no man can require of another, and
that none can render or promise to another, that
which God himself neither requires, nor will accept
from his intelUgent creatures ? Spiritual authority
^n earth, even if it were indisputably sanctioned,
surely can never surpass in its requirements the
powers and requirements of Heaven. Shall the
vicar extort that which the principal would reject,
,if offered to himself? We may be certain that it is
not Christ — the rightful " bishop of souls," but that
it must be the tyrant of this world, who is used to

THE LETTER ON OBEDIENCE. 291

ask from men what is not theirs to ^ve — their con-
Sciences.

Whatever mysteiy may attach to the moral sys-
tem under. which we are placed, this at least is clear,
that the Creator, rather than resume, or recall, his
gifts of intellect, conscience, and free will, leaves
these faculties, in the individual, and in the race, to
run — when misdirected — to the most awful extents
of mischief. Men, endowed with understanding,
and with a moral sense, are in no instances saved
from the fatal consequences of a misuse of these en-
dowments, by a resumption of them. And thus
too, within the sacred and narrower precincts of that
spiritual economy of which the Church is the scene,
neither the perpetuity of truth, nor the purity of
morals, is secured by any divine interposition, such
as might interfere with the natural liberty of the
human mind ; therefore it is that the Church, not
less than the world, has exhibited in its history,
from age to age, the multifarious ^roducts of erring
intelligence, and of wild free will.

How striking — ^how appalling even, is the con-
trast that presents itself when Loyola's doctrine of
corpse-like obedience is compared with the tone, the
style, and the intention of God's dealing with men,
as displayed in the Scriptures, from first to last !
While contemplating this contrast, one is compelled
to say; — these two styles must issue from different,
or rather from antagonist sources. Throughout
the inspired volume men are persuaded, they are
reasoned with, they are entreated : — they are urged,
they are threatened, they are encouraged and in-
vited ; but never is a blind submission of the intel-

292

IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

leet asked for ; never does authorily set ite foot upon
reason. lUumination, guidance, right influence, are
promised to those who would bc led heavenward ;
for which promise^here could be no room if that
kind of compulsion were employed which infringes
the individual liberty of man. If the " Fatber of
Spirits" dealt with human spirits as Jesuitism deals
with its ministers, the use and meaning of three
fourths of the Bible would be superseded ; nay,^
single page might contain all that could have any
meaning in the message of God to men.

Shocking is this contrast ; and the more so the
more one considers it. Instead of the blind passiv-
ity of a corpse, or the mechanical subserviency of a
tool, that which God himself invites, and that in
which he will take pleasure, is the uncompelled,
undamaged du ty, love, and service of the entire
man: the mind, informed, not *' immolated," not
crushed, but nobly consenting to do its part in that
service which is "perfect freedom." That which
heaven accepts must come from the healthful ener-
gies of the heart and soul. Muleted of any faeulty,
abridged in any degree of its liberty, maimed,
shackled, palsied, the " living saerifice," if it might
be a fit offering for the altar of a demon, could
never be a "holocaust" which the wise and be-
nignant Creator would regard as an acceptable
oblation.

Jt is not without a feeling of horror that the
mind endeavors distinctly to bring before it an idea
of that breaking down of the individual will and
mind which Loyola exacts from his fellow-men.
One stands aghast at the thought of sueh an ab-

THE LETTER ON OBEDIENCE. 293

negation of the moral and < intellectual faculties,
when efFected upon a large scale. What, it may
be asked, would a society most resemble, the mem-
bers of which should actually be brought down to
the level of Jesuit obedience? One involuntarily
thinks of the condition of hosts of spirits subjected
to the depotism of the infemal world — the myriad
yielding a blind submission to the unreasoning ca-
prices of the one ! — hosts of living " corpses" — liv-
ing only to be conscious of their loss of whatever
could render individual existence, even apart from
positive sufferings, desirable ! In such a conception
it is supposed that the innate perception of the dif-
ference between good and evil is uprooted from the
soul ; or, if not whoUy lost and forgotten, yet thrown
off, as an encumbrance, by beings who can no
longer foUow its impulses, and whose entire well-
being has passed into another's hånds ! If one
were to imagine a course of discipline — a training
on earth, such as might be most fit to prepare hu-
man spirits for taking their place within the tre-
mendous machinery of the nether world, the school-
ing we must think of could not differ essentially
from that which Loyola devised for his Society, and
of which he gives the rudiments in this epistle.

The constitution of the human mind — a consti-
tution which we may be quite sure no Jesuit " Con-
stitutions" can alter, utterly forbids that any such
State of the will and intellect should come into ex-
istence as that which Loyola allowed himself to
imagine as possible, and which he speaks of ås
good. His " perfect obedience" could no more be
realized tiian can a mathematical contradiction be

294 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

brought into existence. What would be the prcv
cesB in an instance coming strictly within the mean-
ing of the mie he lays down 1 Let the case be
stated. '' Three and three are seven," says the su-
perior. — " I think them only six." " Well, let us
then take an equation somewhat less immediately
resolvable by mere mtuition. 342 times 848 are
equal to 290,017." " I must take one from this smn
according to my calculation of the numbers."
'^ Yotir calculation is not what is now in question ;
for Jirst you are to affirm, as bound by your oath
of obedience, that the sum is what / declare it to
be ; and more than this, you are required to believe
it, with an ' inward conviction' as fuU and sincere
as if you knew it to be true, instead of knowing it
to be false."

" This is that immolation of the intellect to which
you have solemnly pledged yourself. If, however,
you find a difficulty in so doing, and if reason still
revolts, the Society has provided a means of escape
for you, or at least a palliative ; and you are bound
to avail yourself of it : — ^it is this. — If ten persons
sit down to make å calculation, such as that above-
mentioned, one of the number will probably bring
out a result differing from that of his nine com-
panions ; and then it must be granted that same
degree of prohahiMty attaches to the supposition
that this one is right, and that the nine are wrong.
Now this probability, how small soever it may be,
affords ground enough for you to rest your faith
upon, when it is offered to you by your superior, as
a sufficient reason for assenting to the product
which he declares to be correct. You have vowed

THE LETTER ON OBEDIENCE. 295

obedience ; and not merely that of the outward aet,
which is of little value, and possesses no merit, but
that also of the conscience and of the understand-
ing; and this all-comprehensive immolation obliges
you to yield your assent to any degree of probability,
how small soever it may be, when it is sustained
by the affirmation of your superior."

What must be the next consequence, after such a
submission of the reason as is here demanded, has
been yielded ? It will be differetit according to the
etructure of the individual mind. Men, clear-
sighted and of sound understanding, if, from any
motive, such have been induced to play their part
within a community which exacts of them this sort
of " perfect obedience" will, from the first, thorough-
ly have understood what is the interpretation which
they must put upon Loyola's verbiage about the
^* immolation of the intellect." To them this " holo-
caust" means — ^what is very simple, and, what, in a
certain condition of the moral sense, may be very
éasy too — namely, the never uttering their convic-
tions ; and an habifual promptness (resting upou
some fine theoiy of^ moral obligation) always to
utter the contrary. Did Loyola believe that the
clear-headed members of bis Society would, at his
bidding, obliterate their understandings ? Did he
actually think that the Epistle to the Jesuits of
Portugal would induce such men to attempt it ?

As to minds of inferior quality, down to the low-
est giade, such — some sooner and some later in
their course — some with more, and some with less
damage to the moral sense — -would forge them-
selves forward on to a sand-bank as far as possible

296 lONATIUS LOYOLA.

beyond the range of the lashings of conscience and
the buffettings of reason. Much raay be done by a
confused, an infirm, and a perverted mind, when
impelled by an urgent motive of interest, in botch-
ing up a cloak, within which contradictions of all
kinds, rational and moral, may be bound aboiit and
held together. None of these contradictions make
themselves heard within: all are stifled by the
pressure which envelops them all !

But tbere are souls — ^and there are some always,
if not many at any one time — of a stamp as unlike
the first-named sort as the second. Good men they
are, and perhaps they may be Christian heroes too
— ^men who might have been great, if greatness (in
the true sense of the word) did not exclude the ad-
mixture* of anything that is illusory or factitious.
Their whole existence, is a dream — a dream not to
be broken in upon by logic, spoken never so loudly.

But a question of this sort may fairly be put by
the advocates of the Jesuit Society : — " If, indeed,
our principles, and if the very rudiments of our
Institute are, as you aliege, <Rit of harmony with
nature — ^if they are at variance with Christianity,
and are incompatible with the healthful exercise,
either of the reason or the moral faculties, how is
it that the Society has produced, and that it has
had in its service, men — ^more than a féw, whose
virtue, piety, benevolence, and self-denying zeal,
have commanded the admiration even of our ene-
mies ?"

An answer to this well-grounded question, and
an answer compatible with our allegations, is not
far to fetch.

THE LETTER ON OBEBIENCE. 297

Loyola has prcpared a labyrinth, througli which
no human foot can wind its way in a line approv-
able at once to right reason, and to Christian prin-
ciples. But a labyrinth, how intricate soever, need
not perplex those who fly. There is an intensity
of the interior life which carries him to whom it
belongs clear over all embarrassments, which bears
him aloft over the most rugged ground. Snares —
pitfalls — dangerous ravines, precipitous paths, are
all alike to him who, on the wings of habitual
ecstasy, soars through the air ! At a diflicult pass,
where an unimpassioned but conscientious spirit is
staggered and swoons, and where the unimpassioned
and the unconscientious press on, and are lost,
the impassioned — the fervent, take to their pinions,
and alight beyond the danger — unharmed ! Minds
thus elastic and buoyant do in faet retain their
virtue and their integrity in the midst of systems
that must be fatal to the moral existence of all but
themselves. It is in truth a characteristic of such
systems, that is to say, of institutions essentially^
viciouSj to bring together, and to htU in juxta-
position the most extreme samples of lofty virtue
and of utter depravity. The spectacle exhibited
by such systems resembles what one should see in
visiting a spot over which a mortal miasma broods ;
and where ojie should find, amid cadaverous human
beings, two or three of the gods — ^blooming with
immortal health !

There is reason to believe, notwithstanding the
profound subtilty of his intellect, that Loyola's own
temperament was of this very kind. Undoubtedly
it was so, unless the whole of his personal history

13*

298 lONATIUS LOYOLA.

is a fobrication ! It is quite credible that amid the
perpetual glare of his buming thoughts, and the
frequent blazings up of ecstasy upon ecstasy, he
failed to discern, not only the monstrous incongrui-
ties, but the immortal tendency of the scheme he
was digesting. Of this tendency he had made no
personal experiment. His own position was like
that of a man who, from a hiil top, looks down on
all sides upon what seems an unbroken surface af-
fording a safe and easy descent ; but those whom
he commands to descend find themselves soon upon
the brink of precipices. In his own habitual state
of mind Loyola might imagine a something which
he could think of as real and possible, answering to
his idea of a holocaust of the intellect, and an im-
molation of the will. Perhaps an unconfessed pre-
sentiment bf failure held him back from personally
making an experiment of the viitue which he so
highly commended.

Certain it is, and the faet is very noticeable, that,
as often as the one authority which he himself
recognized ^ supreme on earth, actually attempted
to countervail his own, or to thwart his purposes,
or to interfere with his administration, Loyola, in-
stead of welcoming so fine an occasibn for exhibit-
ing, in the view of his inferiors throughout the
world, the edifying spectacle of the "holocaust,"
struggled, by all means of wily management and
of epileptic vehemence, to divert that interference,
and to obtain a decision agreeable to his wishes !
The very fault he so pointedly condemns in others
— that of attempting to bring over a superior to our
mind and wish, and thus to contend with God, was

THE LETTER ON OBEDIENCE. 299

thai which he himself constantly fell into when
the Vicar of Christ and the General of the Order
happened to be of opposite opinions! How fitly,
on these occasions — and they were not very infre-
quent — ^might his o wn exhortations have been pealed
in his ears. St. Ignatius bbey the nod of the Vicar
of Christ, or yield himself to the volitions of the
head of the church — perinde cadaver ! No such
thing ; oc not so long as contumacious resistance
might by any means screen itself from rebuke by
prostrate humiliations. It is certain that the world
would have seen no " Society of Jesus" if its founder
had, in any such manner, thought himself bound
to regard consistency.

Gravely, and for the purpose of strengthening
them in the path of duty, Loyola tells his subal-
terns that, just as they implicitly obey their supe-
riors and rectors, so do the superiors obey the pro-
vincials, and so the provincials the General, and so
does the General himself obey the sovereign pon-
tiff! Alas ! how largelyjnust we draw upon our
residue of charitable ingenuity, before we can save
his reputation, in an instance so flagrant, from the
charge of impudent and conscious falsification !

Many of thJ Society have, no doubt, surpassed
its founder in honest fervor, in Christian integrity,
and in the unmixed intensity of their devout feel-
ings. And it is these men that have held the rep-
utation of the order afloat : it is these that have
stood in the breach when the citadel has sustained
an assault. The superiors and the provincials
having the means, at all times, of thoroughly know-
ing the dispositions and the peculiar excellencies of

300 lOHATinB LOYOLA.

thoøe under their control, have felt no difficulty in
assigning men to their fittest tasks : they have had
at their command heroes and martyrs : they have
also had base minions and tools : nor have they so
&r wanted discretion as not to send the hest men
on the hest errands, and the worst on the worst.
Thus it has been that the Society has been able,
while doing its own work, in its own manner,
throughout Europe, to husband always a needful
amount of glory and bright £eime, acci;ping from
the noUe behavior of a few of its purer members.
These latter, happy enough in being contemptu*
ously deemed by their supenors — good for nothing
but goodness, would be suffered, at once, to save
their own virtue, and to bring home from fieids of
arduous service some superfluous^heaves of golden
reputation wherewith to replenish the exhausted
stock of the Society.

9

CHAPTER III.

THE CONSTITUTIONS.

f

Most of those wbo might wish to acquaint
themselves with the rudimental principles of the
Jesuit Society, would willingly accomplish this task
in some mode less repulsive than that of a contin-
uous perusal of the ^^ Constitutions and Declara-
tions." Such a penisal is not simply wearisome, as
must be, in any case, that of a vast body of regula-
tions and instructions, not one of which takes any
broad bearing upon the welfare of mankind — ^but
it generates a feeling quite peculiar, and which is
positively painful. A melancholy sentiment and a
depression of the animal spirits is produced, resem«
bling that which comes on when treading the cor-
ridors and wards of an infirmary, or of an asylum^
or of a prison ; there is a fear, as when pursuing
the clue that is to guide our way through the mazes
of the catacombs. We are beset by objects that
impose dread, but that possess none of the charms
of subliraity. We ^irebewildered in a forest ; but
it is a forest leafless and lifeless.

Nevertheless, a re-action of the most agreeable
kind ensues as one proceeds ; for the reader awakes
to the comforting recollection, that this night-mare
of despotism is to him a dream only — that this
elaborate scheme of bondage of the mind, soul and

302 lONATlUS LOYOLA.

body — ^binds not him — that for him there is a means
of return from this region of living deatb ;|and that
all his part in this stupendous mechanism of a fao
titious and monstrous existence i? ended when he
has retumed a cumbrous folio to its place on his
shelves !

A perusal of the Jesuit Constitutions produces an
impression, quite unlike what attends that of the
institutes and rules of the earlier religious orders.
Let Cassian be opened : — an intelligent reader of
this author is tempted forward, from page to page,
by a certain air of simplicity — ^by a homogeneous
imaginativeness, and by a moral harmony, pervad-
ing the whole: — the book is recommended by a
style of picturesque and grotesque pbraseology.
There is in it much of an amusing quaintness, and
of a grave absurdity and frivolity that tickle the
fancy. The monastic system plainly and honestly
declares its intention, and this intention is whoUy,
or almost whoUy, centred within itself ; and its pur-
poses and aims are avowed in an intelligible man-
ncr. There is little of mystery^ or none, attaching
to the monastic institutes, even when they afFect
the most concealment.

But the Jesuit Institute, as embodied in the con-
stitutions, is utterly destitute of every chann : it has-
no embellishment : — ^there is nothing in or about it
that is in the least degree picturesque ; — nothing that
is quaint ; — nothing* gracefuUy relaxed ; — nothing
belonging to the world of mixed sentiment and
imagination : all is stern — business-like — mechani-
cal ; — and then, just in proportion as, in these insti-
tutes, there is less of coftcealment, there is more of

THE CONSTITUTIONS. 303

mystery attaching to them. Tliere is laid before
us an apparatus-^— vast enough for effecting the
grealest of those purposes which the ambition of
man has ever aimed at, or imagined ; and yet no
such purposes, and none biit those to which such
an apparatus could never be fitly applied, and to
which it bears no proportion, are named or alluded
to — are intimated or avowed !

Then again, while the monastery was, for the
most part, the asylum of men whose withdrawal
from the duties and service of active life seldoni in-
volved any very serious loss to the world, the Jesuit
Institute is framed for no pui*pose more evidently,
than that of sifting the mass of society, so that it
may take to itself the choicest samples of energy,
intelligence, and devotedness. The Qne drift of the
Constitutions is the selection and careful discipline
of those who are to be the agents of the Society*
But if we ask in what labors are those carefuUy-
chosen instruments to be epnployed, we obtain no
answer which can be accepted as anything better
than an evasion. AU is shrouded in mystery on this
ground.

Nor does it appear, nor can any solution of the
difficulty be gathered either from the Constitutions,
or from any other documentary source, what it was
which the Society offered to men of this order, w^hose
talents and acquirements would have secured to
them a course of splendid success in any path of
secular life, as an equivalent for the surrender, not
merely of its ordinary enjoyments, but of its rewards,
its honors, and its emoluments. If, as a sufficient
reply, we should be told that the highest and the

304 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

purest motives which Christianity inspires have at
all times secured to the Society the devoted services
of so large a number of accomplished men — if this
be all that is said, then we are left to balance a
most incredible supposition against an utterly insol«
uble mystery ; and so to leave the question as we
found it. It is quite true that the pure motives of
Christian zeal have often availed, and that they do
avail for securing the hest services of men who may
have been more or less fitted to fight their way in
secular employments, where no extraordinary sac- ^
rifices of personal well-being are demanded of the
ministers of religion. But such are not the condi-
tions of the problem now before us ; for we have to
consider the case of a band of men selected on ac-
count of their natural ability, their personal eriergy,
and their practical address; and then that upon
stich men conditions are imposed, and from such
men sacrifices are demanded that musjt ever be
appalling to human nature. What then is the
campensation 7 In what species is the equivalent
counted out? From the documents of Jesuitism
no answer to these questions can by any means be
extracted.

Thoée pages of European history, on which the
name of the Jesuit Society meets the eye, might in-
deed aid us in attempting to clear up these myste*
ries. But from these later and indirect sources of
information we refrain. They must be appealed
to, if it shall appear that, neither from the " Consti-
tutions," nor from the " Declarations," nor from any
other undisputed and original sources, is to be ob-
tained any intelligible statement of those objects

THE CONSTITUTIONS. 305

and purposes of the Institute wbich might i easona-
bly be regarded as proportiotutte to the preparations
and to the mechanism which this In^itute exhibits
to our view.

Ou the threshold we are told that the object of
this Society is not merely (nor chiefly) the spiritual
good of its members ; but rather the salvation and
religions advancement of others. For securing
these ends it imposes on its members the solemn
obligation of three vows — ^the vow of obedience, the
vow of poverty, and the vow of chastity. The first
of these is to be understood as forbidding the reten-
tion, by individuals, of any property or Amds what-
soever, to be employed or enjoyed personally or
privately ; as also the acceptance of the customary
fees for performance of the offices of religion ; or of
any salary rendered on any such account. This
law affects not merely individual members, but the
churches and houses of the order.

By means however of an ingenious distinction
which we may be sure the Society would not be
long in finding, the possession and enjoyment of
property to an indefinite amount has been made to
consist with the stem profession of this vow. So
far from relaxing this obUgation, every one, on being
admitted as a member, solemnly engages that he
will never consent to any modification of the rules
relating to poverty, unless it be such as may render
them more severe. All that comes, and which may
be accepted, must come from God, in the simple
form of alms, bestowed by the pious upon those who
are absolutely indigent.

Besides these three vows, to which all are subject,

306

lONATIUS LOYOLA.

the professed members bind themselves by a fourtli,
in which they promise absolute obedieuce to the
Pope, as the vicar of Christ ; a promise obliging
those who make it to go whithersoever the sovereign
pontiff may send them, and without demanding the
means of support ; or to undertake any affairs with
which he may charge them, relating to the worship
of God, or the interests of the Christian religion.

As to modes of living, that is to say, ascetic prac-
tices, the Society enjoins and imposes nothing ; it
would wish its members to live among other men,
as other men do ; yet allowing any, with the con-
sent of their superiors, to adopt more severe rules.

The members of the Society are divided into four
classes, occupying so many stages of proficiency or
of dignity. The first and highest is that of those
who have bound themselves by the/owr vows, who
are priests, and who have regularly passed through
all the initiatory forms. They must be men of
approved and long-tried manners. These are the
" professed."

The second class includes those called coadjutors,
devoted to the service of God in things either spirit-
ual or temporal ; they have passed the initiatory
formø, and have taken the three vows — not the
fourth.

The third class is that of scholars — or those youths
in the Jesuit schools, in whom talents and gifts or
special qualities have probably been descried, fitting
them for the service of the Society^ Before admis-
sion into this class they are to take the three vows,
and to bind themselves by an explicit promise to
enter into its service if so required. Let it be noted

THE . CONSTITUnONS. 307

thai, while on the one side, an obligation is imposed,
on the other none is accepted.

The fourth class embraces those who are retained
in a sort of probationaiy condition, and are em-
pfoyed in such services as they may seem the best
adapted for, and until the Society shall determine
to which of the preceding three classes they should
be assigned. The ordinary time of the noviciate
is two years, which may be curtailed or prolonged
at the discretion of the superior. The Society will
accept no divided affection ; it must command its
members in the most absolute manner, and there-
fore it exacts of them, not merely a relinquishment
of all personal interests, civil rights, and ecclesias-
tical benefices, but a plenary renunciation of every
tie of kindred : this indeed had been the rule and
practice of the ancient monastic communities, but
in the Jesuit institute it is carried out in the most
rigorous manner. The novice consents thus to cut
himself off from " the flesh," and to put himself also,
without conditions, into the hånds of all around
him, to make such reports of him as they may please
to the superior : in retaliation he pledges himself,
in like manner, to aet the delator toward his dela-
tors. Each is armed with the powers of insinuation
or of accusation against all ; all are ranged around
each on the same principle of noiseless impeach-
ment.

Six principal trials of faith, of humility, and of
constancy, are to be passed through by the novice ;
and these deserve attention, as indicative of the sort
of character which the discipline of the Society seems
intended to form.

308 lONATIUS LOYOLA.

The Jirst of these methods of probation is that of
employing a montb, more or less, in passing through
the course of the Spiritual Exercises, as already
described ; and under those conditions of seclusion
and direction which have been mentioned. The
second trial of sincerity for the novice consists in
spending a second month in an hospital, there giving
attendance upon the sick in any mode that shall be
appointed for him. The third demands that the
novice shall set out, de^itute of money or other re-
sources, to beg his bread from door to door for the
space of one month. The fourth requires that, on
his return to the house, he should there execute the
most abject and menial offices. The fif ih, that he
should employ himself for a time, in public or in
private, in teaching children, or the most ignorant
of the people, the rudiments of Christian doctrine.
The sixth — after having in these modes approved
himself to the Sociéty — is to undertake for a time
the oflSces of a preacher or confessor; or of both
together.

These modes of trial must be trials indeed ; un-
less in the administration of the Society a very
great laxity of interpretation be admitted. Let it
however be supposéd that the letter of the Institute
is rigorously adhered to. In that case this course
of humiliation will so aet upon a few minds, as to
set the dispositions and the habits, in a style of re-
ligions intensity, consistent and effective, conferring
upon the individual a sort of unearthly greatness,
which those will jiot easily equal whose Christian
virtues have be^n cherished in a less artificial mode.
These few excepted — the few in whom the Society

THE GONSTITUTIONS. 309

wiU be able ta make its boast — s. diacipline so en-
tirely factitious can produce nothing better thaa a
factitious style of character ; it wiU cover the moral
nature with a crust of seeming Ohriatian heroism :
it will indurate the exterior, and desiccate the inte-
riør man, who, in his moral condition, will be
broiight to resemble those rugged orders of animal^
life, in which a shell, hard enough to render it the
safe casket of a jewel, encloses a creature that does
not seem to possess either head, or heart, or volun-
tary powers ! The human mind is not, we may be
sure, to be trifled with in such modes as these.
When a severe and humiliating course is imposed
simply as a discipline^ and apart from any obvious
necessity, or any reason or Utility, the inner sense
revolts at the gratuitous sufTering, and so recoils as
to generate a deep hypocrisy, or an inward contra-
riety, never, perhaps, spoken of, but which slowly
grows and sprcads as a canker in the bosom. Let
any one distinctly imagine the effect that would be
produced upon his feelings, if he found himself
shoved off from a threshold, to practise mendicity as
an amateur in begging ! How fatal an injury must
every proper sentimen t sustain, when he knocked
at the first door with a plea of destitution on his
lips, which, in uttering it, he blushes to recoUect is
false ! This is an instance, and it is one among
the many with which the Jesuit Institute abounds,
of a method of dealing with human nature too pro-
foundly artificial to produce what can merit to be
called genuine virtue. Analogous methods have
often been devised, and have been put in praetice in
families, and in schools, by theoretic parents and

310 IGNATIUS LOTOLA.

teachers. Whoever has witnessed such experi-
ments will have turned from the spectacle in
mingled pity and disgust.

The same artificial style meets us in almost every
page of these multiplied regulations — ^those espec-
ially which relate to the noviciate.

That the device of the begging month is felt to
be nugatory and absurd, appears from the vague-
ness of the terms in which the novice's certificate
of having begged in a seemly manner is demanded.
The month's peregrination, however, is not trial
enough in this line. Immediately before taking the
vows, those who are to do so, to whatever class
they may have belonged, are anew thrust out into
the streets for three days — ^there, and in imitation
of the founders of the Society — to beg from door to
door "for the love of Christ." , While, at the com-
mand of the cook or scuUion, the novice washes the
dishes, or while sweeping the floor, he is to regard
— ^not the person of him who imposes the task, but
the Lord to whom the service is rendered. Grant
it that, where this discipline finds a fund of åffec-
tionate piety in the heart, it may work well ; but
otherwise — and these must be the greater number
of instances — a sullen abjectness, or a cailous in-
difference can be its only consequence.

"It will be better," says the rule, " that the cook
should avoid a softened style of request toward the
novice. Let him rather, with modesty, command
him to do this or that. For if he speaks entreat-
ingly, it is then a man addressing a man ; — thus it
will be a cook^ — a layman, asking a priest to wash
an earthen pot, or to do anything of this kind,

THE CONSTITUTIONS. 311

which would seem neither decent nor proper*
Whereas, if he uses the style of coramand, — ' Do
this — do that' — then it is at once understood that
he speaks as in the name and person of Christ : it is
not the voice of the cook that is heard, nor even
that of a superior, but of the Lord."

Perilous mdst be all such attempts to give a prac-
tical efficiency to an extravagant and hypotheti-
cally constructed reUgious sentiment ! It may some-
times succeed : it is far more likely to fail, and, in
failing, to become purely mischievous.

Repéated indications are given in the course of
these preliminary regulations, of the anxiety which
is felt in relation to the fuU manifestation of the
souls of the novices to the superiors, who must know
whatever is peculiar to the outward and to the in-
ward man ; — the first, by the direct means of con-
fession ; the second, chiefly by the incidental aids
of dejation. Where all is already well, as to the
religions sentiments, the shifting methods of exam-
ination enjoined in these regulatious may be, if not
beneficial — harmless. But it is the vice of all such
extreme means of dealing with souls — ^a vice which
has exhibit^d itself in the practice of more than one
communion, and among those between whom, and
the Society of Jesus, there may be no other point of
resemblance — that (m the whole they generate what
is artificial, what is hypocritical, what is formal.
Even if signally beneficial for a time, these rigor-
ous measures quickly swerve from their direct
course, and either become instruments of despotism,
or occasions of Spiritual fraud ; — probably both.
No wanant whatever can be found for them in the

312 lONATIUS LOYOLA.

apoeiolic writings. Thus far the General Examin-
ation, prefixed to tbe body of the Constitutions.

The First Part of the Constitutions signalizes,
in each of its regulations, the one intention of the
whole ; namely, to bring together a body of men
fitted, by every natural and acquired talent, to work
upon the mass of mankind. The Society will
harbor none who could only vegetate within its pre-
cincts, or only apply themselves to their personal
improvement, or only indulge their devotional or
literary tastes. Energy and ability, constitutional
and habitual, are demanded as the indispensa-
ble qualities which the Society, in the first place,
looks to.

In the Second Part of the Constitutions rules
are given applicable to cases in which a proposal
to enter the Society is declined, after the noviciate
has actually been commenced. —

For instance ; — ^there is a sufficient reason of ex-
dusion when the novice is found to be in such a
State of health, or liable to infirmities of body of
such a kind, as must prevent his imdergoing the
labors which the service of the Society may demand;
and a reason of equal weight excludes those, who,
during their noviciate, have betrayed an indisposi-
tion to submit themselves to the law of absolute
obedience, as interpreted within tbe Society ; and
who are either unable or unwilling to contravene
their own sense and judgment — proprium suum
sensum aut judicium infringere.

The Third Part relates to the care and ad-
vancement of those who proceed with their novi-
ciate.

THE CONSTlTUnOlrø. 313*

The first point is to preclude all intercourse,
orally, or by writing, with any who might chili the
ardor of the novice, or divert him from his purpose.
In faet he is as strictly watched over, and is as con-
stantly attended by a trusty companion, as if he
were a state prisoner. The most stringent and par-
ticular rules hedge him in during this period of pro-
bation. Gonversb with others, in the same position
as himself, being ordinarily prohibited; and the
novice himself, while vigilantly guarded by the
functionaries of the house, — we must not call them
"tumkeys" — ^is enjoined, with a like jealousy, to
watch his own senses and faculties : his eyes, lus
ears, his tongue, his soul, his every gesture.

In harmony with the first law of the Institute —
namely, the securing the utmost effici^xcy in its
members — all ascetic extravegancies tending either
to enfeeble the body, or to enervate the mind, are
discouraged ; and every one is permitted to mention
to the superior any particular, relating to his per-
sonal comfort, in matters of clothing, diet, lodging,
or the like, which he may think important to his
health ; yet he must do so submissively, leaving the
decision, in all^such instances, to his superior. In
what relates to the sustenance and preservation of
the body, it is the example of the Lord that is to
be foUowed (not that of the mad ascetics of the
desert) : a like prudence^ to be regarded in the
apportionment of bodily labors, care being taken
that the elasticity of the mind be not impaired by
over-much toil: a practical good sense reigns in
whatever afiects the bodily well-being of the mem-
bers of the Society : abstinences, mortifications,

14

814 tGNATIUS LOTOLA.

penances, are all to be restricted within bounds of
individaal discretion, or are to be limited by the
direct autbority of the superior.

The FouRTH Part of these Constitutions re-
lates to the øecular education of the members of
the Society, and of those whom it takes under its
instructions ; — to the studies to be pursued, and to
the modes of teaching that are to be adopted ; and
in no department of its Constitutions is the true in-
tention of the Society more distinctly manifested
than in this.

The Jesuit colleges are establishments, devoted
mainly to purposes of education, which have beeii
conferred upon the Society by the grant of munifi-
cent persons, and which have been adequately en-
dowed by them. These establishments, and these
endowments, are held by the Society in a less direct
manner, and the funds attaching to them being so
employed as to confer a benefit upon the commu-
nity at large — a benefit, at least, in the opinion of
the Society itself — they do not come within the
range of the vow of poverty. On this side, there-
fore, the Society has thought itself at liberty to ac-
cumulate wealth ; and it has don^ so to a vast
amount. This however is beside our immediate
subject ; in faet, it is a subject which couM not be
fully treated unless the history of the Society were
pursued downward, through a céntury from the
time of its origin. It is here adverted to only in
explanation of what occurs in the fourth part of the
Constitutions.

The first chapter of this part relates to those*
Offices of gratitude which the Society acknowledges

THE CONSTITUnONS. 315

itself to owe to the founders of its colleges ; a debt
it is willing to discharge by means of perpetual
masses said for their benefit, and for the benefit of
their successors " living and dead."

A transparent good serise, and practical sagacity,
shows itself in all regulations and cautions that
bear upon the cbnduct of students, and the course
of study, but which do not interfere with the ulte-
rior and occult intentions of the Society. The de-
tection of this concealed motive, as it calls for a
vigilant attention to every paragraph, so should it
exclude a suspecting ingenuity, too ready to see
mischief where none is intended. In faet, throagh-
out these regulations, so large a margin is left open
to the discretion of the rectors, and so frequent a
use is made of the all-comprehensive injunction, to
do what shall seem most conducive, under any ac-
tual circumstances, " ad majorem Dei gloriam," that
the question as to the tendency and character of
the Jesuit educational system is not to be deter-
mined otherwise than by the detailed evidence of
history, which must inform us what this scheme
has actually effected, and what, in the course of
years, have been its fruits. Such a reference to the
testimony of history, it is not easy always to ab-
stain from, when one would fairly consider the im-
port of the regulations now before us. Most of
those who have ranged themselves with the adver-
»aries of the Society have used no reserve in ex-
pounding its rules, by aid of its history. It is
highly desirable, so far as it may be possible, to
avoid this method.

The ample space that is allowed to the discre-

316 ignahus lotola.

cionary power of the rectors of colleges, connected
as this is with the absolute dependence of tbese
functionaries, through their provincials, upon the
General of the order, toward whom they are to hold
no reserve, and whose will is to be their law, renders
the educational scheme of the Jesuits' Society an
elastic and a pliable instrument, which may be modi-
fied, at every moment, and to almost any extent, so
as if to adapt itself constantly to what the interests
of the body, in this or that country, may seem .to
demand. In diifferent countries, and amid the revo-
lutions of opinion, political or philosophical, this
system of education may wind its tortuous course,
under the skilfiil pilotage of the General : easily
may it extricate itself from any temporary or local
erabarrassment ; and easily, by aid of this plastic
condition of the mass, so mould its exterior form,
as to hold to its great purpose, while compromising
whatever is subsidiary to that purpose.

In this respect the Jesuit educational system
stands on ground which may be said to be essen-
tially new ; that is to say, as compared with more
ancient foundations. These for the most part are
stringently obliged by their charters, or by the tes-
taments of their founders, to adhere to a certain
course and method ; and thus, while a stability is
secured to them which is in itself of great value,
they are at once precluded from the advantages,
and are preserved from the risks, attaching to a less
restricted condition. The founder of Jesuitism,
when devising the means for binding the world,
took to himself, as a first principle, this rule — ^him-
self to be bound to nothing.

THE COJiSTimTIONS. 317

The FiFTH Part of the Constitutiona treats of
admission into the Society ; that is to say, the final
reception into its bosom of those who have passed
through their noviciate with credit, and have been
accepted by its authorities, as men qualified to
spend their lives advantageously in its service. Of
such moment is the aet which connects forever a
member with the Society, that the power to admit'
is a prerogative reserved to the General. The ex-
ercise of this prerogative he delegates as often as
necessary to the provincials, sometimes to the local
superiors, or to the rectors of colleges ; or even to
prelates not themselves members of the Society.
The qualities and the accomplishments required in
every candidate are such — and we should note the
faet — ^as would secure to this institution a body of
men much more highly gifted than any other com-
munity has ever had at itscommand; and farmore
highly gifted too, than can be necessary in relation
to those religious functions to which the Society pro-
fesses to devote, and to confine itself, namely — ^the
care of souls, public preaching, teaching of children,
and missions to the heathen. Ånd inasmuch as by
means of that thorough knowledge of all under their
Control which the superiors, the provincials, and the
General possess, they are well able, at all times,
and even on the exigency of a moment, to choose
from a large number the men best fitted to any kind
of labor, it would seem a sort of prodigality to ex-
jpend so much labor upon the education of all, very
many of whom will never be cailed upon to dis-
charge any but the humblest duties. If indeed cUl
are to be thus elaborately trained, must not so costly

318 lØNATIUS LOYOLA.

a preparation be held to bear relation to purpoees
very unlike any which we find to be acknowl-
edged?

At the end of a two years' noviciate, or of a
longer term, and of a four years' course of study,
the Society, in'a mode the most solenm, admits the
candidate into its bosom. No sifting has been
spared which might serve to bring out the most
latent of his dispositions ; no mode of discipUne has
been neglected which might give play to his talents.
Åt length it is ascertained that M. or N. is one who
may well do the work of the Soeiety, and upon
whose obedience and discretion, in the most diffi-
cult instances, a thorough reliance may be placed.
All members of the Soeiety then at hånd assemble
in the church belonging to it, headed by the pro-
vincial, the superiors, and the functionaries of the
order, on the spot. All spaces are filled by spec-
tators from the neighborhood. The general him-
self presides on these occasions, when circumstances
allow him so to do. After saying Mass, and with
the holy sacrament of the Eucharist before him, the
General, or in his absence the provincial, turns
toward him who is to profess, and who having made
the general confession, and uttered the words usual
before the communion, recites with a loud voice the
formula (which has been in his hånds some days)
to the foUowing effect : —

" I, N., make profession, and I promise tq God
Almighty, before the Virgin, his Mother, and before
the universal celestial court, and all here present,
and to thee. Reverend Father N., General of the
Soeiety of Jesus, and standing in the place of God,

THE CONSTFTUnONS« 319

and to thy successors (or to the official who shall
aet as proxy for the General) — ^perpetual poverty,
chastity, and obedience, and conformably with which
(obedience) I promise a peculiar care in the instruc-
tion of youth, and all in accordance with the rule
of life set forth in the Letters Åpostolic, and the
Constitutions of the Societv of Jesus.

"Purther, I promise a special obedience to the
Sovereign Pontiff in that which regards missions, as
declared in the same Letters Apostolic and Consti-
tutions, made at Rome (or elsewhere) the day,
month, year, and in the church named."

These vows pronounced, the professed receives
the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, and his
name is enroUed in the registry of the Society, and
a copy of his vows, written with his own hånd, is
deposited among its archives. A corresponding
form — the fourth vow of obedience to the Pope, is
omitted in thø admission of the coadjutors and of
the Scholars.

The SixTH Part of the Constitutions relates to
the behavior and occupations of those who in this
manner have entered the Society. The first point
being that chastity, concerning which nothing more
need be said than that the vow thereto relating
binds to an endeavor to imit9,te the purity of the
angels in body and mind. But the vow of obedi-
ence — ^being in faet the very- rudiment of the Jesuit
Institute — demands a rigorous explication of its
meaning and extent. We should not fail to observe
the peculiar anxiety which manifests itself in rela-
tion to this subject, whenever it is alluded to in the
Constitutions, or elsewhere. No one can doubt that

830 lONATIUS LOTOLA.

it ia understood to be the foundation-stone of the
øtructure.

An instantaiieous compliance, not merely with
the express commandsof the superior, but with any
silent indkation of his will, is the law of evéry
member of the Society. The entire strength of the
body, and force of the will, with the special aid of
the divine grace, is to be concentrated upon this one
virtue of perfect obedience; — ^holy obedience — per-
feet always m the execution of command»->perfect
in the will — perfect in the understand ing. What-
ever is enjoined is to be performed with prompti-
tude, with spiritual joy, and perseverance, and in
the conviction that whatever is commanded by the
superior is just, and is to be complied with in blind
obedienccj leaving no room for individual impres-
sions or judgtnent ; unless sin therein be manifest.
Thus is every one to yield himself to the guidance
of the Divine Providence, as signified to him by his
superior ; even as if he were a dead body, which
suffers itsélf to be moved this way or that, or to be
håndled in any way ; or as the staff in the band of
an old man which is employed in any manner^ at
the will of him who holds it.

" Above all things is it necessary that all sur-
render themselves to a perfect obedience ; acknowl-
edging the superior, be he whorasoever he may, as
• standing in the place of our Lord Jesus Christ, fol-
lowing him in inward veneration and love, and
this (exhibited) not merely in an exterior fulfilment
of his commands, entirely, promptly, vigorously,
and with a due humility yielding obedience without
excuses or murmurings ; although such commands

THE CON&TITUTIONS. 821

be of difficult execution, and repugnant to natural
feelings : but moreover that they strive, as to the
interior, to cherish resignation, and to practice a
trae abnegation of their own will and judgmait —
conforming their'will and judgment to that which
their superior wills and thinks in all things (wherein
sin is not perceived) proposing to themselves the
will and judgment of their superior as the rule of
their own, whereby they may the better be con-
formed to that supreme rule, which is in itself eter^
nal goodness and wisdom."

The obedience due to the superior of each house
or college, is due also to all subaltern functionaries
appointed by him. Å note attached to the above
passage recommends the superior to put the obedi-
ence of those under his care to severe and gratui-
tous tests— tempting them, even as God tempted
Abraham ; nevertheless with a due regard always
to the strength of him upon whom such experi-
ments are to be tried. .

It is as a branch of this perfect and unreasoning
compliance with the nod of his superior, that the
Jesuit is enjoined to disclose to him his inmost soul.
The question which obtrudes itself upon the mind
again and again in perusing these injunctions is
this — can it be solely and purely in relation to the
intelligible ojQSces of Christian benevolence, and of
popular instruction, that a law øf obedience so ex-
traordinary as this, and so tremendous, can be
either necessary or warrantable? Do not these
unearthly conditions mutely declare purposes of a
very different kind, and of far greater difficulty?

14*

322 iGNATnrs lotoul

Who can ezclude from his thoughts such supposi-

tiODB?

The Yow of poverty is anew enforced and ex-
plained in tbis part ; but upon ground necessarily
implpng one of the three assumptions following,
namely — That the Society expects and confides in
a miraculous dispensation in its favor — ^from day to
day — ^from year to year, and in peq>etuity; or,
That it calculates with more of caUnness than in-
genuousness upon that constant stream of pious
munificence which it shall be able to direct towards
its establishments, by aid of its control over the
public mind ;— or That it bears in mind (and so
reUeves its disquietudes) that device by means of
which it is able, as in faet it has done, at once to
profess poverty, to live upon alms, and to amass
wealth. Perhaps the three sources of supply are
altemately kept in view ; or are held available,
singly, as occasions may demand.

Let it however be acknowledged that, even if the
Society did cherish a little illusion in what relates
to its support and secular welfare, and did speak of
things as practicable which it knew were not so,
yet that a harmony characterizes its regulations
and instructions in this behalf. So far as such a
scheme of conventual existe^nce could berealized —
and it inigtU be realized under circumstances pecu-
liarly favorable — ^there is a noble simplicity in it —
there is a moral force and grandeur ; and undoubt.
edly the inlSuence of this system upon the conduct
and feelings of the simple-minded, (we must be
permitted to speak of simple-minded Jesuits) would
be of a kind tending to cherish a self-immolating

THE CONSTITUnONS. 323

heroism. In &ct it has been by the instnimentality
of men of this class that the Society has won its
triumphs. Its exceptive instances have saved it,
when its own machinations have gone near to
ruin it.

The mie of obedience, as we have seen, admits a
parenthesis — a saving clause, in regard to the ten-
der conscience of here and there a scrupulous mem-
ber. Obedience is to be blind — unless sin be mani-
fest. The Jesuit is to dose his eyes, and is to hold
them closed, and yet he is, by aid of some other
sense, to get notice of the presence of sin, should it
at any time be involved in the commands of a supe«
rior. An explanatory rule, bearing upon this deli-
cate case, is as follows ; — ^whether it amounts to an
entire nuUification of that liberty which the paren-
thesis seems to grant, let the reader determine for
himself : —

" Although it is the intention of the Society, that
all its Gonstitutions, and Declarations, and its Rule
of life, should be undeviatingly observed, according
to the Institute ; yet it nevertheless desires to tran-
quillize, or at least to guard the minds of all its
merøbers from the danger of falling into the snare
of any sin, owing to the obligation of these Consti-
tutions and ordinances. Tberefore it hath seemed
good to us in the Lord, with the express exception
of the vow of obedience to the Pope for the time
being, and the other three fundamental Vows of
Poverty, Chastity, and . Obedience, to declare that
none of these Constitutions, Declarations, or Rules
of life, shall make obligatory any sin whether mor-
tal or venial ; unless the superior may command it

324 IQMATIUS LOYOLA.

in tbe name of our Lord Jesus Christ, or in virtue
of tbe vow of obedience ; and ibis be may do wben-
ever and to wbomsoever be mayjudge it conducive,
eitber to individual good, or to tbe universal well-
being of tbe Society. Tbus for tbe greater glory df
Cbriøt our Creator and Lord, instead of a perpetual
fear of sinning, is substituted love, and tbe desire of
entire perfection."

Tbe Seventh Part relates to tbe assignment
of tasks, at borne or abroad, to tbe members of tbe
Society individually.

It has already been said tbat a vast preparation
is made-— means tbe mæt unusual are ]:esorted to,
and a course of discipline is instituted wbicb bas
no parallel for securing tbe services of a large body
of aecomplisbed men, under ccmditions tbe most
severe ; and vre bave yet to learn A¥bat tbose bigb
purposes are tbat migbt seem proportionate to tbe
magnitude and solemnity of sucb preliminaries.

Tbe first of tbe avowed purposes of tbe Society,
and it is tbat to wbicb mucb importance \é attacbed
— ^ut inter cæteras præcipua — includes tbose missions
(to tbe beathen principally) wbicb tbe sovereign
Pontiflf may enjoin, conformably with tbe vow to
tbat effect made by every professed Jesuit. Tbis
undoubtedly is a great and worthy object, altbougb
it by no means demands the sort of preparation
wbicb tbe Jesuit Institute involves.

But let us bear in wbat terms tbe Society in terprets
its obUgation to obey tbe sovereign Pontiff in wbat
relates to foreign missions. First^ as to the coun-
try whither its members should direct their course :
— upon tbis point, inasmuch as tbe Society bas

THE coNsnrunoNs. 325

sabmitted its own sense and wiQ 'Ho our Lord Jesus
Christ, and to his Vicar, it is not permitted to the
superior for himself, nor to any subaltern for him-
self, nor for another, to use endeavors, mediately or
immediately, intended to mfluence the Sovereign
Pontiff, or his ministers, in determining where any
one should reside, or whither he should be sent.
Every one in particular leaves this determination
absolutely to the vicar of Christ, and to his supe-
rior ; the superior leaves it to the pontiff and to the
Society — in the Lord ;" — ^that is to say, to the Gren-
eral, who is to enlighten the pontiff in whatever
relates to such decisions, and to arrange the matter
with him, as best he may. Whoever is ih this
manner designated, and sent forth, is to go uncon-
ditionally, and without demanding even the costs
of his joumey, or any remu^eration.

In looking at the amplitude of these engagements
— ^freely entered into as they are by thé Society, it .
is barely possible to exclude all recollection of that
flagrant coUrse of contumacious resistanee to the
papal authority which has marked the Jesuit mis-
sions in the Eastj and elsewhere, almost from the
earliest days. Å determin ed defiance of papal bulls,
and a fixed contempt of apostolic letters has been,
in practice, the comment put by the Society upon
its vow of implicit obedience. In this same man-
ner, we have seen Loyola, after professing himself
to Jl>e bound to the vicar of Christ by his own doc- *
trine of passive obedience, employing every means
of vehement protest and of intrigue, either to influ-
ence the papsd decisions, or to evade them* The

336 lONATIUS LOVOLA.

remaining instructions of this seventh part are few
and meagre.

The EioHTH Part relates to the means to be
used for maintaining a good and intimate nnder-
Btanding among the members of the Society ; and
between them and their head. The first of these
means is the carefiil exclusion (or expulsion, if it
has been incautiously admitted) of the leaven of
self-will, or individttality. Whoever shows a dis-
position to think for himself — ^whoever fails in the
prhne article of passive obedience, is either to be
removed to a distant province, or to be expelled
from the Society. It is in proportion to the perfeo-
tion of this first of Jesuit virtues that it fulfils its
intention, and only so that it prospers.

An accessary means for securing this thorough
accordance of all movements is the appointmént,
when and where - it shall seem necessary, of a col-
league, or collateral, who himself owing no obedi-
ence to the functionary at whose elbow he stands,
advises him in critical instances, acts as a sort of
fly wheel to the machinery, when otherwise a jar or
stop might occur ; and who imposes caution and
fear upon the superior and the subaltern, by his
known use of the license of delation, which, how-
ever, is not so to be employed as might tend to
weaken the authority of the superior. To the Gen-
eral he conveys uncontrolled and uncontradicted
intelligence of whatever he sees, as well as of what
he does not see, and only surmises. It is thus that
this complicated scheme of govemment commands
a double system of espionage — one regular and con-

THE CONSTITUnONS. 327

stant; the other applied when^ver circumstances
may seem to render the first insufficient.

A despotism absolutely unmixed, orwbicb makes
no statute provision for extreme cases of misrule, or
for occasions of extraordinary difficulty, will either
bring upon itself a sudden destruction, or will neces-
sitaten transmutation into some other form of polity.

The founders of Jesuitism would not leave their
Institute exposed to any such peril as this ; and to
avert the danger they have not only made provision
for dethroning the autocrat in ex^reme^ cases, but
have mitigated a little his rule, and placed him un-
der a measure of control by the aid of a democratio
element — the General Congregation, which is con-
voked, not periodically indeed, nor frequently ; but
as extraordinary occasions may demand, and either
at the will of the General, or even of a majority of
those who immediately surround him. It is the
professed members only, with a few of the coadju-
tors, who are summoned to attend this Congrega-
tion. Nor is it all even of these who are con-
voked, but those only who can attend without per-
sonal inconvenience, and without damage to the
affairs with which they are entrusted. In faet, the
electoral apparatus of a representative government
is put in movement on such occasions. Thus, by
a provision of the most peculiar kind, a polity which
is more purely monarchical than any other, takes
to itself the prerogatives of a regular and efficient
representative government — at any moment when,
without such a transformation, a crisis would proba-
bly ensue. A designed indistinctness attaches to
the language, of the Constitutions, when speci-

328 lONATIUd LOTOLA.

iying, or professing to specify, the cases thai might
warrant the convoking a Congregatioa of the order.
As rarely as possible is the Society to be subjugated
to the labors and to the distractions of such an as-
semblage. The General, aided by those around
him, would no doubt avert the necessity of this
measure, as far as it may be possible for him so to
do. It must, however, be undergone as ojften as the
election of a general is to take place, whether ocpa-
sioned by the death of him who had held that
office, or by so extraordinary an occurrence as his
deposition. A Congr^ation must also be sum-
moned when the permanent interests of the Society
at large are in question, or when colleges or houses
are to be broken up.

An elaborate system is put in movement for the
election of members in each province, who are to
be its delegates in this muster of the order. The
congregation when convoked, as for example for the
election of a General, may, after having discharged
this duty, proceed to considei: other matters, and
such as may be regarded 'as too weighty to be left
to his discretion, or that of hiscoadjutors. On such
occasions therefore, that is to say, as often as a de-
mise of the sovereign power takes place, the mon-
archical principle is held in abeyance, even although
a successor to it has been appointed, and for a mo-
ment the Society breathes its own breath, and speaks
and acts as a free conmiunity. The Jesuit Insti-
tute, therefore, is at once an absolute monarchy, a
mixed monarchy, and a democracy, and it is so not
by a balance of the several elements of power in

THE CONSTITUTIONS. 339

nmultaneous juxta-ppsitioa, but by an alternating
and variable supremacy of each.

The NiKTH Part of tbe Constitutions relates
to the office of the General, and .to the rules and
modes of his administration.

The strongest reasona fa vor an élection to this
office /or lifsy an office altogether analogous to those
ruled by this same condition— such as that of the
Pope, and of all ecclesiastical dignitaries. The
qualities that should recommend any one to this
high position are — the enjoyment of the favor of
God, and the consequent possessioh^ in an emiilent
degree, of all those gifts and graces which emanate
from the source of all good : — a life exemplary in
the sight of men ; and a temper adorned by humil-
ity; — earthly affections mortified — a disposition
calm and circumspect ; and manners grave and se-
date. He must, however, be firm and resolved, and
capable of carrying measures of severity when such
are cailed for ; yet should he be full of tenderness
toward those whom he chastises. He must be dis-
tinguished by courage and greatness of mind, apt
to form the largest plans, not soon discouraged, but^
steady in purpose to carry them forward, unmoved
by threats, or by entreaties ; and even when those
who would divert him from his course are the lofti-
est potentates. He must be ready to die, if need
be, for the Society, and in the service of the Lord ;
and bf such tranquil temperament as to be neither
elated by prosperity, nor dejected by adversity.

The General must shine among his fellows by
intelligence, as well as by every »acquired accom-
plishment, by practical ability, and pre-eminently

330 letYATIUS LOTOLA.

by soundness of judgment and prudence — ^by expe-
rience in things Bpiritual, and by knowledge of hu«
man nature. He must be so well skilled moreover
in secular affairs, as to be able to deal advantage-
ously with men of all conditions. He must be
distinguished by his assiduity, promptness, energy,
and habits of dispatch in business. He should in
person, age, health, figure, manners, be such as to
command the respect due to his office, and to the
discharge of its duties ; and should actualiy enjoy
the favor and esteem of all men. He should be one
long known within the Society, and highly esteemed,
and who, Avhatever other qualities he may lacfc,
must be recommended by probity, a clear judg-
ment, and devoted affection to the Society.

The General thus qualified to govem so vast
a community, exercises an authority which has
scarcely any limits. To him belongs the preroga-
tive of admitting to membership ; as also of expul-
sion. He sends whithersoever he will, those who
are prosecuting their studies. He superintends and
govems colleges, in all that relates to the scholars,
the professors, and other functionaries, especially to
the rectors themselves, w^hom he nominates or de-
poses, and whose authority in each instance he de-
fines : to him they render account of their adminis-
tration, and in hke manner he governs all those
universities that are placed under the control of the
Society.

All contracts of a pecuniary kind, all sales and
purchasea, must be éffected or sanctioned by thé
General ; his power in matters secular being bounded
only by this restriction, that he may not alienate or

THE CONSTITUTIONS. 331

break up colleges or houses, without the consent of
a congregation of the order. As it is his office and
duty to enforce the strict observance of the Consti-
TUTiONS upon all th^ members of the Society and
its officers, so does it rest with him to dispense with
that observance in any instances in which — as en-
lightened from above — he may think that the main
ends of the institution would better be secured by a
breach of them, than by a rigid adherence to the
letter of the law. That is to say, the General is
virtually superior to law, or he is held to it only by
the possible resentment and resistance of those
around him.

The General exercises the most absolute controji
over all persons and measures attaching to foreign
missions — regardful, only and always, of that higher
Control which the Society, by its fourth vow, assigns
to the sovereign Pontiff. He distributes according
to the talents of each, the offices of confessor, reader,
preacher, and the like.

Whatever powers, or pri vileges may be accorded
to the Society by the Pontiff, are at the absolute
disposal of the General. To him belongs the inflic-
tion of punishment, and the appointment of pen-
ances. It is at his discretion that general or pro-
vincial assemblies are convoked. Without his per-
mission (and it is granted only in the most rare in-
stances, and at the express command of the Holy
See) no member of the Society can accept any office
or dignity out of its pale. All offices within it are
filled at his appointment. It belongs to him to ac-
cept any houses, colleges, or universities, with their
endowments, that may be offered to the Society — a

332 iohahøs lotola.

discretion, as to the retention of such, being reserved
for the general congregation.

It is his duty to make himself intimately ao
quainted with the conscience& of all who are sub-
jected to his authority, the Provincials especially,
and of those to whom the moet important functions
have been assigned. In a word, all power, with the
fewest possible limit'ations, is left in the hånds of
the head of the Society.

The Society, however, while subjecting itself to
an authority so absolute, keeps an eye upon its own
well-being, and • upon the great purposes of its
institution. The proceedings of the General are
watched on the part of the Society, by officera ap-
pointed for that purpose, and always resident near
him. These "Assistants," four in number, exer-
cise a control to which be is bound to submit, over
his personal expenses, his establishment, and his
attire ; and even over his personal conduct, so far
as to moderate any labors or abstinences which tbey
may think excessive and prejudicial to his health.
They appoint him a confessor, or other well quali-
fied person, who, taking the oversight of his spirit-
ual welfare, admonishes and |flvises him, with hu-
mility and freedom, having in view solely the glory
of God.

A possible case is provided for, in which the Gen-
eral may be urgently pressed by a secular prince to
accept some office incompatible with the due dis-
charge of his functions, and which would render a
resignation on his part necessary. To no such
solicitations can he yield without the consent of the

THE coNsnrunoNs. 333

Society ; and this is never to be granted unless in
submiseion to the authority of the Pope.

Should the General become hopelessly negligent
in the performance of his duties, or incapable
through disease, or the advance of years, a vicar is
appointed, with or without his consent, upon whom
devolves all the powers of the superseded or super-
annuated General.

The last case supposed as possible (never it is
hoped actually tø occur) in which the Society, by
means of its officers, resume^ the powers it has
conferred, is that of some flagrant delinquency on
the part of the General, such as sensuality, the in-
fliction of a wound upon any one, malversation in
the administration of the funds of the Society, gifts
to those not belonging to it, the alienation of the
property of houses or colleges, or the holding of
false doctrine. In any such case, if incontestably
established, the Society deposes the General, and
may even expel him from its pale.

In the mode in which the equilibriimi of powers
is provided for, the Provincials yielding passive
obedience, or professing so to do, while at the same
time they are held responsible to tbe Society at
large, and required to exercise some discretion,
involves an anomaly of which no explanation can
be given except that which applies equally to poli-
tics and to mechanics, namely, that some such
means of adjustment, as the theory of the con-
struction would not admit, is in faet allowed for in
the working of its parts, by help of the unperceived
elasticity of the materials. On no other supposition
can we reconcile that unconditioncU, and yet con-

334 lONATIUS LOYOLA.

ditiønal law of obedience, which coDnects the
supreme power, in the Jesuit institute, with the
aubordinate power.

In the execution of his office, involving an exact
attention to a vast multiplicity of affairs, and to
questions the most difficult and diverse, the General
is aided by his own assistants, heads of depart-
ments, administrators of particular interests, and
generally by a remembrancer, whose duty it is to
recall to his recoUection daily, what, from the infir-
mity of the best memory, might otherwise be for-
gotten.

The TENTH and last part of the Constitu-
TioNS embraces various subjects bearing upon the
well-being of the Society, upon its efficiency, and its
permanence.

Some perhaps would not be ready to suppose that
a passage such as the following would occur in the
midst of a system of laws so immoral in their ten-
dency as are those of " the Society," and connected
with the history of what is regarded as a confed-
eracy against the liberties of nations. But inas-
mnch as we are not now constructing an argument
upon materials of late date, all credit should be
given to the professions here cited.

'< Inasmuch as the Society, which has not been
established by human means, but by the favor of
the Almighty and of our Lord Jesus Christ, our
hope in Him alone must be placed, confident that
he will maintain and fiirther this work, which he
has vouchsafed to commence, for His service and
glory and the succor of souls. In accordance with
this hope, the prime and most suitable means to be

THE OONSTITUTIONS. 835

employed for this end are prayers and sacrifices,
offered with this pious intention, in all placea where
the Society is established, and at appointed times
in due order every week, month, and year.

" For the preservation and increase, not of the body
merely of the Society, that is to say of those things
that are external, but also of its spirit, and for the
attainment of that which it proposes to itself, naraely
the benefit of souls, in aiding them to reach their
final and celestial destiny, those means are the most
efficacious which connect the instrument with God,
and dispose it to be rightly governed by the divine
hånd, rather than such as attemper it toward men.
Of this sort are probity and virtue, and especially
charity — a pure intention to serve God — a famiUar
communion with God in the spiritual exercises of
devotion ; and a sincere zeal for the welfare of
souls, tending to the glory of Him who has created
and redeemed them ; and this apart from any
thought of further ad vantage. Thus then we should
see to it, that all those who dedicate themselves to
the service of the Society, apply themselves to the
study of the solid and perfect virtues, and of spirit-
ual excellences ; and that they attach more import-
ance to these things, than to leaming, or other na-
tural gifts and accomplishments. For it is from
these interior graces that an efficacious infiuence
should flow for securing the endswe purpose as to
things exterior.

" These gifts and graces being present, all exte-
rior and natufal means useful for obtaining infiu-
ence with men, are with assidUity to be employed,
especially a solid and exact erudition, and the art

336 lOlf ATIU8 LOfTOUL

or faculty of conveying to the people, in sermons
and lectures, the rudiments of knowledge."

Ths disinterestedness of professors in colleges is
tabe secured by a strict observance of the rules
thereto relating. That poverty which is so indis-
pensable to the well-being of a religions order is to
be most sedulously guarded from the insidious ad-
vances of the spirit of cupidity. The occasions of
ambition are to be cut off, the utmost vigilance is
to be observed in the admission of members, and
firmness in expelling the unworthy. All care is to
be used in the election of the chief of the So-
ciety, and in the appointmeut of all inferior officers.
A frequent and intimate communication is to be
maintained among the members, and between tbem
and their superiors. AU excesses prompted by an
indiscreet fervor are to be discouraged. The good
opinion of the world at large, and the favor of
princes, are to be sought for ; yet not by courting
parties. The best use is to be made of the favors
granted to the Society by the apostoliq See, Such
are the means which should be diligently used for
securing the welfare, permanence, and increase of
the Society.

Certain points in relation to which the distinction
between Romanism and Jesuitism is, if not obvious,
yet real and vitally important, are presented to view
in an incidental manner throughout the Constitu-
tions. The evidence that touches upon these points
is to be gleaned, up and down, from the surface of
this body of laws.

Among these subjects, thus incidentally and
somewhat obscutely set forth, none are of deeper

THE CONSTITUTIONS. 337

consequence ihan are the Jesuit practices of " Con-
fession" — the "Manifestation of the conscience,"
and the appended usage of " Delation." The prin-
ciple involved in these practices, and the Bearing of
this principle upon the unalterable constitution of
the human tnind, and upon the eternal laws of Grod's
government of the moral world, demand attention.
On this ground, as well as in the interpretation
which Loyolal has put upon the doctrine of obedi-
ence, the most candid inquirer into the merits of
Jesuitism is compelled to acknowledge that the sys-
tem rests upon a principle, and authorizes practices
that do the most frightful violence to human nature,
and that contravene, in an outrageous manner, the
first principles of natural and «svealed religion. In
these instances the inherent and irremediable vi-
ciousness of this Institute obtrudes itself upon our
view.

The Romish Church, how culpable soever it may
itself be on this ground, has shown itself not insen-
sible to the perils and abuses that beset its practice
of Confession ; and it has, by stringent and réitera-
ted enactments, done something to diminish these
dangers, and to repress those mischiefs, the exist-
ence of which it admits. How far these precau-
tionary measures may have been effective is not
now a question to be considered : at the least they
are indicative of a feeling that is good in itself. The
Romish Church allows her members individually to
choose a Confessor, wherever there may be room for
such a choice ; and in doing so it establishes, be-
between the penitent and the Confessor, in some
sort, a relationship of aifectionate confidence, and

338. lONATIUS LOTOLA.

of personal friendship. And then the confidence
reposed by the one in the other is guarded by enact-
ments and by sanctions the most peremptory, and
which in faet are not often violated : — the priest's
lips do, in this sense, "keep knowledge," — i. e.
retain it. And then when confession has been duly
made, absolution granted, and the imposed penances
performed, all is so far concluded ; and although a
deep incision may have been made into the bosom,
yet has it also been closed by the same professional
hånd.

But the Society, on this ground, deals in a very
different manner with its members. Every Jesuit
is obliged to confess himself, at the stated times,
and they are frequent, to the one Confessor who
has been appointed for him by his superior. This
fimctionary, who receives the confessions of all
within the house or college to which he is attached,
instead of being at liberty to grant absolution in
the mode, and on the terms, customary in the Rom*
ish Church, is instructed to reserve certain speci-
fied cases of delinquency, and to report them to the
Superior. In faet, whatever may either touch the
reputation of the individual, or may serve in any
manner to afford a clue to his secret dispositions, is,
on the ground of its being " a reserved case," re-
portéd to those next in authority; and through
these it ascends, when of sufficient importance, to
the ear of the General ; the penitent meanwhile is
held in suspense, not only unabsolved, but in doubt
as to the course that may be pursued toward him
in the infiiction of punishment. In this manner —
that is to say, by holding always in his band a

THE CONSTITUTIONS. ^9

aumber of these reserved cases— the Superior rules
his house with a rod of non. Undefined terrors are
at his command ; the fate of every one whose con-
science has compelled him to confess a sin which is
of the "reserved*' class — ^his fate, temporal and
etemal, is in the hånd of the Superior, and remains
in his hånd for an indefinite time.

But even when Confession has gone its length,
what is called "the manifestation of the conscience"
goes much further; for this practice, not indeed
new among the monastic orders, plunges a ruthless
hånd into the bosom, to the utmost dépth which
human nature may admit, and leaves absolutely
nothing unsurrendered of the inmost secrets of the
soul. If such a violatio^ of the first rudiment of
the moral life be intolerable when the bosoms sub-
jected to it are such only as a monastery is likely
to harbor,, how intolerable must it be when it is sus-
tained by men of intelligence and energy, and who
are daily moving in and out on the crowded paths
of common life ! An outrage like this, committed
upon minds such as these, will not fail either to
break the spirit, or to debauch it. Romish Confes-
sion, and Jesuit Confession, with its attendant " man-
ifestation," are not by any means identical, nor
should they be confounded: — the one is a religions
usage; — ^the other is a means of secular govern-
ment; and in how frightful a sense does it become
such when confession and manifestation are the
groundwork upon which "Delation" makes good its
footing !

It may happen that, neither by the confession of
his sins, nor by the manifestation of his conscience,

340 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

has a member of the Society thoroughly removed
from the minds of bis Superior all suspicions as to
his sincerity, or his subserviency. Perhaps it has
not yet become perfectly certain that he, individual-
ly, may safely be employed in this or that manner ;
or that the Society holds his whole soul at its
absolute command. For cases of this kind it
makes provision by means of the practice of
Delation. Delation foUows upon Confession and
Manifestation — sweeping the ground after each of
them, and gathering up, by the menial broom and,
shovel of silent treachery, whatever may lie scat-
tered about, and which may be in any manner sig-
nificant.

Every Jesuit is encouraged — nay he is bound —
to report to his Superior \rfiatever he may know,
and whatever he may suspect, relative to the con-
duct, to the private habits, or to the secret disposi-
tions of every other. Every Jesuit is a spy upon
every Jesuit : a net-work of perfidy embraces the
entire community, and from its meshes not even
those highest in authority stand for a moment clear.
Every functionary knows that he is minutely
watched by every eye around him, and that he may
be reported and accused to the central authority,
without his cognizance of the charge, and from
which charge he has no opportunity to clear himself.
Spiritual despotism boards this influx of treacher-
ous criminations among her choicest treasures, and
brings them forth, after perhaps a lapse of years,
when they may be found to be of avail for carrying
her long-meditated purposes. Let us now be told
whether Christian simplicity and manly ingenuous-

THE CONSTITUTIONS. 341

ness, whether the purest and the noblest virtues are
likely to flourish within precincts thus brooded
over by fear, by malice, and by falsehood ? Let not
the extreme proposition be maintained — that piety
and virtue, candor and truth, can never exist under
conditions such as these. It is more than enough
for any purposes of argument if it appears — ^that a
scheme of government which first robs men of all
self-respect, and then of all confidence, one in ano-
ther, must render Christian piety and manly virtue
rare; — and what does this mean when we are
speaking of a body of men who offer themselves to
the worid as the teachers and patterns of both ?

So long as the constitution of the human mind,
and the first principles of that moral economy un-
der which we find ourselves to be placed, are re-
spected, the confession of faults one to ai\Other, and
the disclosure of the inmost secrets of the bosom
will be regarded as exceptive cases, that are war-
rantable, or that are rendered necessary, by pecu-
liar and special reasons. These special reasons
therefore must always prescribe the limits within
which the practice can be allowed as legitimate, or
can be encouraged, as of good tendency. But if no
suc/i limits are observed, then this disclosure of the
individual consciousness has become, not the exep-
tive instance, but the rule, and then, consequently,
each instance of concealment becomes, not merely
an exception to a rule, but an exception that is open
to the severest reprehension. It is thus therefore
that the Jesuit practices, above adverted to, rest
broadly upon a misunderstanding of human nature
— ^upon a violation of its most sacred instincts, and

342 MNATIUS LOTOLA.

of the conøcience as related to the divine govern*
ment.

The very radiraent of the intellectual, as well as
of the moral life, is the power of reserve. This
encrusting of the soul is the first law, and it is
the necessary condition of that individualUy^ apart
from which there remains no fulcrum of resolve, no
self-priginating progress or purpose, no liberty, no
dignity, no love ; and therefore, by inevitable con-
sequence, no virtue. Whoever will foUow out in
idea these conditions, will feel that wisdom and
virtue, strength of purpose, self-respect, and respect
for others (apart from which love is not possible)
can no longer be conceived of after we have re-
jected from our conception of human nature all
power of seclusion and concealment, and have
thoroughly denuded the individual mind and heart.
Man, created as he was in the likeness of Grod,
bears upon his very front no ambiguous indication
of his participation in that perfection of the Divine
nature which surrounds it with ^' clouds and dark*
ness." " None by searching can find out God," or,
" know his mind," for " He giveth no account of
any of His matters." He still " hideth himself,"
even in the heaveus where his glory is manifested.
And so, while endeavoring distinctly to conceive of
any order of beings, we wholly fail to associate with
such a conception the idea of personal virtue, until
we have admitted the idea of individtial inmolor
bUity: Virtue will have her vesture. That this
power of concealment is in faet of primary impor-
tance, as the ground or support of individual re-
sponsibility, may well be inferred from the faet that,

THE CONSTITUnONS. 343

in the constitution of mau, it has been guarded
with the utmost care. How terrific an illustration
of that sacred inviolability with which the Creator
has endowed human nature do we obtain, when
mechanic ingenuity is seen to be exhausting in vain
its last devices of torture at the bidding of tyranny,
only to break up by force this power of reserve, and
to violate this inviolability ! Blood oozes from every
vein — the sinews crack — the marrow of the bones
drops from the fingers' ends, sooner than the secrets
of a firmly constructed soul can be wrenched from
the bosom ! The quivering lips emit involuntary
groans ; but they do not belie that awfiil truth of
the moral system — That God's own hånd has
sealed man's individuality, by conferring upon him
this strength of the will ! Can it then be a light
matter to fret away, by little and little, this cover-
ing of the soul, which is the fence of vir tue, and its
necessary condition, and which the Creator has
planted so deep in the recesses of our nature ?

That which despotism attempts to accomplish by
the anguish of the rack, a perverted and vicious
ingenuity has sought to achieve by its sinister pro-
cedures.

If love be the perfection of virtue, or if virtue be
love universal, then is it certain that, if by any
means an entire expodure of the inmost soul could
be effected, such as would rend away the last re-
serve of self-esteem, then virtue would be possible
no more. ' Even an approach toward such a de-
nuding of the heart, and toward such an abandon-
ment of individuality, is felt to be prejudicial to the
purest affections. Those who are well skilled in

344 I6NATIV8 LOYOLA«

human nature do not need to be told this ; for they
are conscious of it as by a sort of intuition. Love
is the Gominuning of two spirits, or it is such an in-
tertwining of natures as that while the branches^
the foliage, and the clusters appear all as one mass,
yet each plant has its own stem, and its own root ;
and the root of each must draw its nourishment
from a depth beneath, and apart from the other.
It is the weakly-fond, it is not the wise, who would
push the revealing of hearts beyond all limit. It is
a diseased prurience, not a virtuous mgenuousness,
which shows itself impatient of all concealment. A
mind that has been violated by the prurience, or by
the tyranny of another, feels that it has lost, and
perhaps has lost irrecoverably, its contractile force :
— ^henceforward individual purposes, and resolves^
and energy, and the calm consciousness of strength,
are gone ! Now the Romish practice of Confession,
whatever evils may attend it, does not in any su^^h
manner violate the inner principle of the moral na-
ture. Confession may indeed, and it should, suf-
fuse the cheek with crimson ; but this Jesuit prac-
tice' of the manifestation of the conscience, which
leaves nothing unrevealed, spreads over the visage
the palidness of despair. Shame — that is to say a
virtuous shame — the shame whence reformation
might take its rise, springs from a painful conscious-
ness of the contrast which the penitent's own con-
fession has presented to the eye of another, between
that outside of virtue which personal reserve has
hitherto maintained, and the delinquency which
has now been disclosed. But if all reserve has been
abandoned, shame can have place no more — for

THE CONSTITUTIONS. 345

there can now be no contrast — no confusion of face
— no humbling of pride ; henceforth there is room
only for sullea despondency, for self-contempt, or
for immoveable apathy !

If it be said that the wisdom or expediency of any
practice that is called in question must be judged
of, not on grounds of abstract reasoning, but by pay-
ing regard to certain purposes that are in view, and
that these purposes may be of so extraordinary a
kind, or may be at once of such difficulty and of
such importance as to warrant what otherwise must
be regarded as vicious and unwarrantable ; if this
be said, then a further question presents itself ; and
it must be asked, What these extraordinary pur-
poses are which might be alleged as proper and
sufficient for justifying the vast apparatus of spirit-
ual tyranny which the Jesuit Institute puts in
movement.

16*

CHAPTER IV.

THE PURPORT OP THE JESUIT INSTITUTE. ^

What, then, are tbe professed intentionB of the
Society of Jesus? And what are those labcNrs
which it undertakes ? And of what kind are the
preparations which it makes for achieving its
avowed purposes? Is there a manifest adaptation
of such means to the accomplishment of such ends ;
and are the means duly proportioned to the ends?

These queries are plainly reasonable, nor should
they be dismissed until they have been disposed of
iil a manner that is free from ambiguity.

A passage lately cited, p. 334, may well be re-
ferred to as a &ir sample of the style in which the
founders of the Society declare their motivbs, and
set forth the ends and purposes toward which all
their labors are directed, and within the compass
of which this mass of rules and enactments — this
thousand and more of carefuily digested regula-
tions, find their reason. Scarcely a chapter or a
page of the Constitutions is wanting in similar pro-
testations of the highest and the purest religious
motives, as the sole incentives of action that are
recognized by the Society.

Let then these professions be accepted as genuine,
and as ingenuous ; that is tb say, as being clear of
all suspicion of mental reservation. But if so, then

PURPORT OF JESUITISM. 347

the avowal of purposes, as well as the profession
of motives, must be taken as an entire or compre"
hensive avowal. This shoiild be clearly under-
stood. If we give credence to the Society while
declaring that it is animated by no motive of secu-
lar ambition, and that it is warmed solely by the
love of God in " Christ Jesus the Lord," then must
we also regard it as certain that, when the Society
specifies the labors and duties to which its members
are to devote themselves, nothing remains behind —
nothing— no offices are silently thought of— no
functions are held in prospeet of which no mention
is made.

But it must be granted, that if the avowal of
purposes be found to be incomplete or disingenu-
ous, then the profession of motives will, at the same
time, have forfeited all claim to our confidence;
and in that case the " Society of Jesus" will seem
to have come into fuU and rightful possession of its
vulgar reputation. Thenceforward no injustice
will be done to Jesuitism when, without quaUfying
the term, we employ it as an epithet, carrying its
conventional meaning, all the world over, and call
it — Jesuitism.

The Founders of the Society first make a pro-
fession, as we have said, of their motives. They
then spread before us the means they have devised,
and the preparationa they have made for effecting
a great work, at the impulse of such motives, and
in harmony therewith. Vast are these means —
mighty is this preparation ! No such scheme, none
so elaborate, so exactly balanced, so highly finished,
has the world ever seen. No other system has so

348 IGNATIUS LØTOLA.

carefiilly selected its agents, or has subjected them
to so seyere a training. Nothing would tbis scheme
seem to want, either in amplitude, or in elabora-
tion, or in a profoundly calculated adaptation to the
sbifting occasions of this world's affairs, if indeed
its ulterior purpose were to grasp, to bind, and to
serve itself upon — the human family! Nothing
more than what the Jesuit institute includes would
appear to be needed, if the establishment of a uni-
versal empire, secular in its ends, but spiritual in
its pretexts, were proved to be in truth its intention.

But how simple, must we not say — ^how vapid,
is the recital which the Society makes of the pur-
poses to which it dedicates this mighty machinery !
Awe and terror attach, on every side, to the ma-
chine; a guileless benevolence, which seems to
need no machinery whatever, characterizes its
avowed labors !

The Jesuit Society proposes to itself such labors
as these : — Firsty to take the oversight and direc-
tion of souls, for their fiirtherance heavenward ; it
intends to aim at nothing in the dicharge of this
duty that is not purely spiritiial. Secondly^ it of-
fers its unpaid services in the very humble office of
catechising children and youth, and of imparting
the rudiments of knowledge, religions and secular :
— it is, or would be, schoolmaster gratis^ to all the
world. And, thirdly, it charges itself with the la-
bors — ^arduous indeed—- of evangelizing the hea-
then, and of restoring a catholic belief among apos-
tate nations. This is the whole duty ostensibly
undertaken by the Society ! Not a syllable occurs
in any of its authentic documents whence might be

PURPORT OF JESUITISM. 349

inferred any latent intention to step over these
modest boundaries, or to touch, even remotely, any
secular interests. No course whereon worldly am-
bition might start forward is suggested as possibly
to be opened before the Society, or before any of its
members individually.

The spiritual good of mea, and the glory of God,
are — and these alone — the ends and purposes of
this Institute. These purposes are professed in
terms which might exclude all suspicion of sin-
ister or fraudulent intention. Everywhere purely
religions professions ^re advanced in a purely relig-
ions style, and with an abundant use of phrases
drawn from Holy Scripture. .

If in any case whatever the consequences of a
given line of conduct may be anticipated with cer-
tainty, we may be sure that an association of Chris-
tian men impelled by motives such as those that
are in this instance professed, and pursuing objects
so intelligibly good and benign, and confining its
laborø strictly within the limits of ecclesiastical
usage, and always in- punctilious observance of the
rites of the national faith, could never draw upon
itself the e:^eqration of nations, or could come to
be denounced as an enemy by governments that
were once its patrons. Zealous sects, promulgating
opinions in contrariety to the established belief, and
acting independently of authorities in church and
State, have indeed often so made themselves obnox-
ious to princes and to mobs. But no instance can
be cited analogous to that of this Society, if indeed
its motives have been such only as it has professed,
and if its intentions are those only which it avows.

350 lONATnJS hOYOUL.

On ihis supposition, what an enigma is the history
of the Society within the hosom of Catholic com-
munities, if we adTert to the events of the years
following in quick succession from 1606 to 1773 !

But i^ in faet, the events that signalized that
course of time are indisputable, and therefore de-
mand explication, then must we revert to the ca-
nonical documents of the Society, and inquire
whether they do not exhibit so monstrous an in-
coherence, and such an intemal disproportion, as
baffles the attempts both of philosophic candor and
of Christian charity to admit the plea — ^that all is
sincere and ingenuous in the professions of this
community.

A Uttle attention to the several heads above men-
tioned may suffice for bringing distinctly to view
this alleged disproportion. First, then, among the
avowed purposes of the Society, is the care of souls.

Nothing that does not directly bear upon the
spiritiud welfare of men, as immortal beings, is
alluded to in connection with this principal function
of the Society. These labors of evangelic benevo-
lence are therefore precisely identical with those
that were iindertaken by the first promulgators of
Christianity. It cannot be alleged that the care of
souls, as immortal beings, in one age of the world,
essentially differs from the care of souls in another
age, or that it demands at one time provisions or
preparations wholly uniike those which were proper
and necessary at another. The miraculous endow-
ments of the apostles and evangelists had a mani-
fest intention in the establishment of a new faith;
but these are not in any way included among the

PURPORT OP JESUITISM. 351

means iadispensible for givingeffect to tbe pcistortd
office ; nor need a substitute be sought for in their
place. Fervent love, firm faith, courage, ^eal, and
consistency of conduct, with an aptness to teach,
are the qualifications of the Christian minister, or
shepherd of souls.

So far as appears, and if we are to accept the
professions of the Society as true and ingenuous,
the occupations of a Jesuit, in relation to the care
of souls, differ not at all from those of the first
preachers of the Gospel. What need, then, of the
Strange conditions which the former brings himself
under, with a view, as he says, to his better dis-
charge of these same oflSces? Let us put these
intelligiblé questions distinctly. What need then
of the Vow of Poverty as a qualification for the
spiritual oversight of soiils? Instead of takihg
upon himself a spontaneous obligation which, in
practice, must be nuU, and which must, when null,
become a mockery — instead of doing this, Paul
thought it enough that he had leained ^^ how to
abound, and how to suffer need ;" and that, for the
furtherance of the Grospel, he had accustomed him-
self to the endurance of hunger, thirst, nakedness :
— he could traverse countries, homeless and de-
fenceless, whenever these hard conditions were to
be encountered. But did he think that a vow of
perpetual and gratuitous poverty could be usefiil
over and beyond this readiness to endure ^' hardness
as a good soldier of Jesus Christ ?" It is certain that
he did not : it is certain that he had encumbered
himself with no factitious obligation, which would
have brought the aimplicity and ingenuousness of

/

352 lONATlUS LOYOLA.

his character into reasonable doubt. Some among
thoee whom he exhorted to repentance would aot
have been elow to surmise that a man who paced
the streets, begging his bread when he had plenty
of gold in his purse, or when he might easily have
supplied his daily wants in another manner, har-
bored some sinister intention, and was either a fool,
a fanatic, or a knave. Let it be considered whether
this vow of poverty has not a murky aspect when
it is professed by those whose office it is to proclaim
glad tidings in all simplicity of heart. Ijet it be
asked whether a profession which cannot be main-
tained at all without the aid of circuitous pretexts,
and of a network of legal fictions, is likely to exert
an auspicious influence upon the minds of converts,
unless indeed they themselves have been dealt with
delusively and fanatically. This vow of poverty,
which no doubt has been found to be both useful and
necessary as a means for accomplishing sinister
and secular ends, and for fastening upon the souls
of the people a pernicious tyranny, is clearly not
only superfluous, but must be prejudicial in relation
— ^purely and solely — to the care of souls.

The Utility of the vow of celibacy, as a means
conducing to the same end, will not easily be ad*
mitted by those who are well read in Church his-
tory. The question^ however, not being peculiar to
Jesuitism, need not in this place be considered.

No such selection of instruments — ^no such train-
ing of these instruments — no such conditioDs as
these instruments are subjected to in the Jesuit In*
stitute, can there be any need of where nothing
more is intended than a simple-hearted and faithfiil

PURPORT ON JESUITISM. 353

discharge of the pastoral diities. Ånd not only are
such preparatioQs whoUy Unnecessary in relation
to the spiritual instruction and guidance of souls,
but they must operate, as might easily be shown,
and, indeed, as is obvious, prejudically in relation
to any such function. Infinitely better were it, both
for the religions teacher, and for the taught, that
the two should stand together on the ground of
commoli sympathies ; instead of their holding inter-
locution from the opposte sides of an unfathomable
abyss.

But now, if there be reason to imagine that, not-
withstanding its professions to the contrary, the
Jesuit Society has looked on beyond the dim " eter-
nity" of which it talks so incessantly, and that it
keeps a steady eye upon the better-defined objects
of this present life, then indeed would it secure for
itself, by all means, the function of the " care of
souls," and would make precisely such preparations
for the successful discharge of this office as we find
it to have made.

In this particular aspect the Constitutions cease
to be an enigma, and become quite intelligible ;
that is to say, when once we have assumed the
hypothesis that the real intentions of the Society
are directed, not toward heaven, but toward earth.

The care of souls is the very office which those
would be forward to undertake whose intention it
was to possess themselves, not of the shadow, but
of the very substance of universal empire. The
abstract idea of Power has been but poorly realized
in even the most perfect forms of government hith-
erto established among men. Civil governments^

354 I6RATIU8 LOTOLA.

wheo ihe most abcK^ute, do Dot touch upon the ex-
terior of such a conception of Dominion as the
mind may entertain. Secular power professes to be
content with that submission or obedience which
ensures to itseif its tangible revenues, its state, and
its show ; its pageantry, its gorgeous pomps, and
its trophies ; as for the rest, it cares little. Eccle-
siastical power looks somewhat further than this,
and demands a more intimate kind of assent and
compliance. Yet, knowing that beyond the lip, and
the visage, and the knee, it can secure nothing
without infinite painstaking on its own part, it is
willing to accept the hypocrisies of the exterior man
as sufficient, even although conscious that the hom-
age it receives is spurious. The Church has asked
either for a genuine or for a counterfeit submission ;
— ^the former, if it could be had ; but, if not, the
latter.

Yet something far more real than this there was
room to imagine — namely, a true dominion, reach-
mg to the very depth of men's hearts, and which,
when so possessed of the interior, might be indif-
ferent concerning the crust and the shell ; — ^this was
an object which, if thought of as attainable, was
fitted to kindle the profoundest ambition ; and, on
the supposition that an object so vast and so awfuUy
consistent with itseif was contemplated by the
authors of the Jesuit Ini^titute, then every part of
that complicated scheme is seen to be a means well
adapted to such an end. Assuming this theory,
there is no longer any perplexing disproportion be-
tween the means and the end ; and then the care
of souls, undertaken by men who have passed

PURPORT OF JESUmSM. 955

through a discipline so stern, and who have boimd
themselves by vows so fearful, is the fixst and prin-
cipal labor which should prepare the ground for the
intended superstructure. On this supposition, Jes-
uitism no longer (as otherwise it must) stultifies
itself ; and it is able— as we might be sure it would
be — to give a rationål account of itself — to it-
self. It has not put itself to infinite pains — ^for
nothing.

Let then this idea be taken up as the theory of
Jesuitism ; and let it be imagined that its intention
is to stretch over the human family a perfect domi-
nation, independent of physical force, and therefore
able to set it at defiance ; and which, as more deep-
ly seated than any other, should at length come in
to supplant every other — to absorb all other author-
ities, and, in the end, to rule the world from the
centre of a single bosom. Now, if such be the idea
of Loyola's Institute, then it is obvious that the care
of souls and the direction of consciences will be
foremost among the offices with which it will
charge itself. It will engage to do everything for
souls, "without fee or reward," which souls can
need, or can wish to be done for them. It will un-
dertake to cure all maladies, to relieve all perplexi-
ties ; it will burden itself with the heaviest respon-
sibilities ; it will, without scruple, make itself uni-
versal proxy for men in every condition of spiritual
incapacity.

A scheme founded on such a principle of univer-
sality, inasmuch as it may not leave any single in-
stance or any possible case of conscience unprovided
for — even the most extreme and desperate — ^must

356 I6NATIUS LOYOLA.

not have any conscience of its own to be cared for
or respected. An authority that is limited inter-
naUy, by its respect for certain fixed rules, and by a
regard to its own integrity, circumscribes, so far, its
faculty of adaptation to all states and circumstances ;
for while it can and may do such or such a thing,
it may not, and will not, do such or such another ;
and tberefore its domination can take effect only
within defined boundaries.

Why is it, then — ^need we ask ? — ^why is it that
the Jesuit Institute prepares its agents for their
work by first scooping clean out of their bosoms
every atom of individual conscience ? why does it
enjoin upon them a "blind obedience?" Surely
there is no mystery here ! The Society does so be-
cause.the work it undertakes, as universal curator
of souls, could not be carried forward by men within
whose bosoms there remained any power of resist-
ance, or any individual sense of the inconvertibility
of right and wrong, or who, in a word, had a con-
science of their own. Every day's round of duty
must present occasions fraught with anxious per-
plexity to those whose habit it should be to appeal
to their personal convictions of right. Such an appeal
would often utterly forbid those things to be said
and done which must be said and done for " the
ease of souls" by the ministers of a power that will
in no possible case risk the loss of its influence, or
the defection of its subjects.

Such a power, moreover, aiming at once at uni-
versality, and at extending an absolute rule down
into the depths of all hearts, must have the means
of surveying its field: in otherwords, it must know,

PURPORT OF JESUtnSM. 357

or at least be able to know, all hearts. Its own
agents, therefore, as they must be to it the medium
of its omniscience, must themselves have become
thoroughly translucent. That "manifestation of
the conscience" to which so much iijaportance is
attached by the Society, and that system of " dela-
tion" which is so sedulously maintained within its
pale, are only the necessary means for effecting
this transparency of all bosoms. Å perfect soul-
despot ism must needs have at its command a
panopticon such as this. The instrument is fitted
to this purpose ; it is fitted tt) no other. If it were
alleged that no valuable purpose could be answered,
even in the view of the most despotic power, by this
intimate inspection of the hearts of men, not one
of a thousand of which would offer to the eye apar-
ticle deseiTing a moment's regard, it is enough tb
reply that, in these preparations for the care, direc-
tion, and government of souls, that one class of souls
has not been forgotten upon the dispositions and
machinations of which the revolutions of the great
world depend. Shall this Society, in proof of the
pure spirituaMty of its views, drive from its door
nobles and potentates, ministers of state, dignitaries,
captains, and the subaltern agents of government,
leaving them to implore, in vain, its aid in giving
ease to their consciences ? Shall the Society repel all
such frequenters of its precincts; or, not repelling
them, shall it sternly refuse to listen to any recitals
or confessions that are not strictly of a spiritual
kind? or, if it listens in part to disclosures touching
secular interests, shall it save itself the trouble of
leaming the whole which its clients may be willing

368 IGNATIUS LOTOLA.

to roake kaown? It will not do so: it has not done
so,

Instead of attributing to the Society any such
modesty as this, we must assume it as certain,
irrespectively of the evidence of history, that, in
the anxious selection of its agents, in the severity
of the dbcipline through which it compels them to
pass, in the monstrous conditions to which they are
subjected — especially the abnegation of conscience
— and in the extraordinary measures it pursues for
possessing itself of a species of omniscience, the
Jesuit Society has had prominently in view the care,
guidance, succor, and control of the souls of those
who possess and rule the world.

Next to the care and direction of souls, the
primary, function which a spiritual domination must
undertake is that which shall enable it to build for
perpetuity — ^namely, the education of children and
youth : and this constitutes in faet, the second of
the professed intentions of the Society. What are
the qualifications of a good teacher ? If they are
not the most common, neither are they the most
rare : intelligence, acquirements, assiduity, benevo-
lence, and, not least, an ingemuyus sim/plidty of
character, What beyond these gifts and endow-
ments? Not a practised astuteness, not a skilied
refinement in casuistry, not a monstrous personal
condition, not a renunciation of personal convic-
tions and conscience: such things are not merely
not beneficial, but must be, in the last degree, of
ill-tendency in relation to the duties and offices of
education.

But if the first and the last lesson of a Jesuit

PURPORT OP JESUITISM. 359

education be — to prepare a people for itself, to mould
the several orders of society into a form the most
readily available foi its own ends, tl^en the mere
schoolmaster, the simple-hearted, assiduous, and
well-instructed teacher, will not be the tool adapted
to purposes so occult and so difilicult. It is the
Jesuit teacher, who, while winning a well-eamed
reputation simply as a teacher (none have sur-
passed, on this ground, some of the Society's teach«
ers and professors) shall be qualified to give to the
education he conveys a special direction, and to in-
fuse into the minds of youth sentiments altogether
of a pecuUar cast. If the subj ugation of the
human family be, indeed, the end and law of the
Society, Jesuit education must be a habitude of
moving in trammels : the philosophy which is pro-
pounded to youth mnst be devUalized : in the litera-
ture which it doles out jin morseis, the light and fire
of genius must be extinguished ; and whatever is
great, free, noble, must be kept out of view. AU
objects must be exhibited — as in a museum — in
glass cases ; not as in life and nature. The teacher
must always stand bodily between the learner and
realitt/y who must know, see, and feel nothing,
except through a medium. How far the Jesuit
educational system has corresponded to such a
description is not now our question. What is
affirmed is this only ; — That the Jesuit Institute,
when Gonsidered as an engine of universal educa-
tion, is adapted to its purpose, if the ends, which it
does not avQW, are, in truth, those which it has ac-
tually had in view ; but far otherwise, if it intends
only what it speaks of.

360 lONATIUS LOYOLA.

•

A lively missionary zeal marked the earliest out-
break of Loyola's religious ardor, and it is certain
thai his desire to go forth and attempt the conver-
sion of Mahometans and heathens preceded his con-
ception of the Jesuit Institute. When at length,
and in consequence of the defeat of his purpose to
evangelize the East, the greater idea of subjuga-
ting Christendom absorbed his thoughts, then, as it
seems, the missionary project, which a regard to
consistency forbad him to relinquish, was taken up
as a sort of appendage to Jesuitism. Besides, the
heathen world was an outlying territory, which, if
actually reclaimable, would vastly extend the range
of the Society's domination — ^might yield it a rev-
enue of reputation, and would moreover open to
the General of the Order, at all times, a means of
sending into honorable banishment any among his
colleagues whose high temper, whose conscientious
firmness, or whose bright reputation, might make
it desirable that they should be allowed to win a
martyr's crown somewhere on the other side of the
globe.*

Manifestly, the Jesuit Institute was not framed
with any leading intention to adapt it to the evan*
gelizatioH of the heathen world ; and it is remarka-
ble that whenever and wherever its agents have
been so employed, they have found it expedient or
unavoidable to hold its characteristic principles in
abeyance 5 or even to put open contempt upon its
rules. Among the heathen the vow of poverty
has been a mockery ; and contumacy has been
the interpretation it has put upon its vow of obe-
dience to the Pope. The Jesuit solemnly promises

PURPORT OF JESVITISM. 381

to go whithersoever the Sovereign Pontiff shall
send him — to India, to China, or to America ; but
when he has reached .his destination, he makes a
very jest of papal authority.

Jesuits have done well and worthily among the
heathen ; and they have done ill too. What they
have done well, they have done as Christian men ;
what ill, as agents of the Society.

But i^ as is manifest and unquestionable. Jesuit-
ism be a scheme framed for effecting purposes alto-
gether unlike those which it avows, and if its
history more than confirms the conjectures to which
an analysis of its principles gives rise, then why
should we not denounce its authors as wicked
machinators, and its agents, one and all, as the
cloaked enemies of their species! Condemnatory
conclusions of this sort are inadmisible, not merely
because they are offensive to Christian charity, nor
because they are contradicted by the broad princi-
ples of a sound philosophy ; but because they are
repugnant to particular facts.

Sweeping conclusions such as these would not
hold good if advanced against the subaltern agents
of the Society ; that is to say those of ordinary in-
telligence, of fervent temperament, and of simple
character : for there is quite enough in the avowed
objects of the Institute to recommend it to the con-
scientious regards of such men. TTieir line of la-
bor would always be of a kind which may easily
offer itself to the affectionate approval of honest and
benevolent men; and especially of those whose
minds are fraught with the prii^ciples of the Romish
Church. To such minds, moreover, the enormous

16

362 IGNATIU8 LOTCHiA.

disproportion (which to those who look at the sys-
tem from a distance is so astounding) between the
scheme itself^ and ils declared purposes, would not
be manifest. Jesuits, tberefore, of a middle intel-
lectual stature, and of ingenuous tempers, may
individually deserve respect and esteem, notwith-
standing their implication in a system so pemicious.

But neither must a harsh conclusion be admitted
against the authors of this scheme, as if they
must have been deliberately conscious that they
were preparing a wicked and treasonable attempt
against the Uberties and welfare of mankind.

Human nature, in rare, if not in frequent in-
stances, brings forces into play, of which the unob-
servant take no notice, or which they do not under-
stand, and of which passive and inert minds are
incapable of forraing any conception. Por example,
the idea of a widely-extended and absolute control
over the spirits of men, or the abstract conception
of POWER, has a fascination in it which, to some
minds, is quite irresistible : it is an idea which
shows its own inherent quality by its first master-
ing the bosom into which it has gained entrance,
and where it swells to giant proportions, and soon
plays the tyrant, imposing restraints upon all im-
pulses that would divide empire with it. The mass
of men, variously impelled as they are by appetites,
desires, petty interests, little imagine with how sov-
ereign a force the idea and love of power rules the
few minds that are born to admit it. ^

Loyola is undoubtedly an eminent instance of
this sort. His animal impulses were of no feeble
kind, and his susceptibility to emotions of the relig-

PURPORT OF JESinnsM. 363

ious class was unusual ; so thai his existence ap-
pears to have been a sort of chronic ectasy. Never-
theless, if a certain moment of his course be as-
sumed as a starting point, a purely inteliectual im-
pulse thenceforward ruled his conduct in the mo^t
absolute manner.

One thougbt — the idea of a universal spiritual
domination — had opened its vastness to his eye;
the Jesuit Institute sprung up out of that thought,
as its germ ; and thenceforward every vulgar desire
weltered and died away within him; and even
those swelling emotions which might have made
him chief among enthusiasts were hushed ; or they
roUed their awe-stricken billows silently through
the deeps of his bosom.

Tbere are many degrees among those who are
bom for power. The less noble of this class covet
it for themselves as a personal good ; and then, in
pursuit of it, they run the course of worldly ambi-
tion, often knee-deep in blood. But there are some
(few indeed) whose inteliectual structure is of a far
more refined sort, and to whom the mere contem-
plation of a deep-seated and wide-spread domina-
tion, near to the centre of which they are placed,
is bliss enough. Even self is forgotten while this
pure idea, embodied in faet, is gazed at. That
Loyola's passion for power was of this sort may
well be beUeved, and the supposition that it was so
furnishes perhaps a clue to his otherwise Strange
behavior on the two occasions, first of his election
to the Generalship, and afterwards of his proposed
abdication. It may at least be imagined, and per-
haps believed, that his primary irapulse was the

364 lONATIUS LOYOLA.

desire to øee his idea of a universal empire put in
progress toward its completion; a secondary im-
pulse, balanced by the toils of government, was the
personal wish to hold the reigns in his own hånd.

On any supposition of this sort, therefore, we
repel, on one side, the claim advanced by the ad-
mirers of " St Ignatius," who attribute to him a
heaven-bom zeal ; and on the other, the denuncia-
tions of the adversaries of Jesuitism, who allow
themselves to speak of Loyola as Satan's chief min-
ister, even as the Spanish doctors of the sixteenth
Century speak of Mahomet or of Luther.

The idea of a universal spiritual empire does not,
by itself, involve any element of malignity — a mind
natively benevolent might entertain it. And, more-
over, it is an abstraction of a sort around which
there may be painted, in fair colors, a broad margin
of pious assiduity and self-denying benevolence.
To Loyola's own eye, probably, the Idoia Specus
never showed themselves otherwise than as envel-
oped in chaplets of love and devotion. Tortuous
and guileful, astute and artificial, too often were
his modes of administration ; but while treading
these crooked paths, hi^ eye was still fixed upon a
bright idea beyond.

It belongs to humsui nature in rare instances
thus to feel and thus to aet ; but we must not for-
get that the propensity which sways one mind in a
million, finds a reciprocal sentiment, or correspond-
ing impulse, in the breasts of that milli(m. There
is a fascination of submission, as well as there is a
fascination of power ; there is an instinct asking to
be guided and govemed, which is not less- marked

PURPORT OP JESUITISM. 365

than is the impulse to guide and to govein. If no
such instiDcts or impulses had belonged to human
nature, there could have been no social combina-
tions; or no governments, except such as are
founded upon brute force. The fascination which
impels the one to govem, and which incUnes the
million to be governed, is intense always in pro-
portion to the vagueness, or to the spirituality, or
the mysteriousness that attach to the poUty under
which men are associated. Where there is no ob-
scurity, and nothing that may not be instantly
made intelligible to all, there is no room for loyalty
or devotedness. But, on the contrary, within the
precincts of a darkly shrouded domination, and
where a veil hangs between the chair of power and
the crowd, there an awe-stricken affection binds
the spirit of the multitude even to a much-dreaded
authority. Is Jesuitism inexplicable ? it is so, and
thereftyre its rule, when not broken up by the in-
discretion of its agents, has been of the firmest sort.
The subjects of this veiled power are drawn along
in its wake by a luxury of their own imaginatioa;
they are not dragged onward, but they go, charmed
and luUed : they have come within the flow of a
mighty but tranquil current which bears them softly
on — ^whither, how vain were it for them to ask,
since the tide is irresistible !

We may be sure, therefore, that when the time
comes for Jesuitism to make known, without re-
serve, its purposes, and when it shall admit all the
world to inspect its machinery, it will be Jesuitism
no more. Yet, in these times of universal disclos-

366 lONATIUS LOYOLA.

ure, how loDg will it be possible for any system,
secular or religious, to wrap itself in clouds 7

If it be true, as appears, that the Constitutions
of the Jesuit Society do not enable us to discover
any rational proportion, or relationship oi fitness^
between the machinery of the Institute, and i^s
avowed purposes, and if, therefore, mystery must be
regarded as attaching to its very essence, and if
illusory professions belong to it by inherent neces-
sity; then this question presents itself — ^namely,
whether, in times like these, when concealment
and prevarication are being rent away from every
form of govemment — ^^hen the loftiest and the
proudest potentates are rudely called upon to ex-
plain themselves, and to become intelligible —
whether, in such times, a scheme of government
which has ever been, and which must be, disingen-
uous — ^which is bound by its rudimental principle
to deal falsely with the world, will find it possible
to withstand a tendency so adverse to it ; or, in a
word, whether it can continue to exist ?

The obvious answer to this question would be —
that it cannot.

Is not every government, it may be said, learning
this new lesson, that, henceforward, it must draw its
stability, not from the mystification, but from the
disclosure of its purposes, its means, its resources, its
prospects ? must not every polity use a thorough in-
genuousness, as well toward* its foes, as toward its
friends ? Does it not seem as if " Powers of dark-
ness'^ were fast ceasing to be powers at all ? and is
not Church power showing that it also has become
conscious of this same truth, and that it has ad-

PURPORT OF JESUmSM. 367

mitted the dogma of a revolutionary era ? Is not
Romanism preparing herself for ^n appeal, in her
own favor, to men's understandings, and showing
thai she intends to challenge their submis^jion, for
the future, on the ground, not of bUnd faith merely,
but of reason?

It would seem natural to conclude, then, that a
polity which must cease to be itself, when it becomes
explicit and honest, must consent, in these days, to
bring its dealings with the world to an end. But
this inference cannot be admitted as certain. Jes-
uitism may indeed be compelled to slide itself oflf
from its original position, and to establish itself
upon broader ground, as a refined scheme of spirit-
ual and intellectual domination ; but it may, and
probably will, make good its continued existence,
and may renew its lease, not merely in spite of the
prevailing anti-mysterious tendency of thé times,
but by the very aid of this tendency, operating upon
it in the way of reaction. If the age we live in be
the age of publicity, there will therefore be exhib-
ited, in some quarter, and in a decisive form, that
appetite of human nature which seeks for a deep
and awe-inspiring gloom, as a refuge from the
glare.

Spiritual domination is not to be thought of (so to
think of it would be the dictate of a shallow phi-
losophy) as a plot, hatched by the few against the
rights and Uberties of the many. The chiefs of
such a domination are not contrivers of an unasked-
for scheme, whose machinations all men would
gladly circumvent and crush. They are not such ;
but they are those who engage to provide and to

368 lONATIUS LOTOLA.

fumisb thai wbich minds of a certain class — ^and
they are not few-t-yeam to be supplied witb, and
wbicb they must, somewbere, find ready to tbeir
use. Conspiracies are epbemeral; but spiritual
domination endures from age to age, for it is not a
conspiracy ; it is tbe suppty of a constant want.
But if it be do, then it is reasonable to suppose tbat,
at a time wben mysteriousness is passing off from
almost everytbing, tbe one power or polity which
still sbrouds itself in darkness, will refresb its forces
— ^will extend its influence, and will draw itself
togetber in meditation of new scbemes of aggran-
dizement.

In these " last days" tbe burricané of revolution
bas unroofed, or bas utterly overthrown, almost
every sanctuary of blind faith, and of devoted feel-
ing. Tbere remains, however, still one Cavern ;
and tbe Jesuit Socieiy guards tbe entrance of it ; —
a cavern wbere twilight sbeds its fascinations upon
unkuown objects of awe. Tbe herd of men seek
for and enjoy tbe glare of day : — ^but not so all men
— ^not so women. While tbe greater number ap-
prove only what they understand (or what they
tbink they understand) and will support only what
they discem to be useful, others, and they are not a
few, distaste whatever is tborougbly intelligible, and
captiously reject whatever is presented to them as
unquestionably useful. Men of this order attach
themselves tbe most passionately to that wbich will
never show them tbe reason why they should do
80 ; and it is with an inesistible instinct that they
court, invite, and yield themselves to, whatever

PURPORT OF JESUITISM. 369

it is which most men turn from with dread and
hatred.

It may then be assumed as probable that, not-
withstanding the general adverse tendency of the
times, and even drawing a new strengtb from that
tendency, Jesuitism, as a purely spiritual domina-
tion, will perpetuate itself. It is another question
whether it bas not seen its last days as a secular
scbeme and polity, existing among other polities,
and exerting an influence over them in a direct
manner.

Two revolutions marking the present era are
both of them of a kind decisively unfavorable to
the continued political influence of a body so no-
torious for tlje tortuous and wily modes of its pro-
cedures. The first of these revolutions — and how
auspicious a change is it ! — consists in the contempt
in to which has fallen the disingenuous and knavish
style which, in past times, characterized the diplo-
matic iniercourse of nations. Whatever is honest
in politics wins approval, and carries with it a tri-
umphant force. Such, at least, is the growing feel-
ing of the European commonwealth. State craft
is falling into dis-esteem, and is losing its advantage.
At the same rate therefore, it would seem, that
Jesuitism must relinquish its hope of ruling the
world by whispering its counsels in the ears of
statesmen and princes.

But even if it might still attempt to do so, another
revolution, more conspicuous and extensive in its
import than the one just named, has come about,
which either quite precludes all such endeavors, or
which must restrict them within the narrowest

16*

370 ION ATIUS LOYOLA.

limits. It is ibis, thai those movements which af-
fect the welfare of nations spring, less and less from
the individual will — from the mind and purpose, of
the goveming few, and are more and more depend-
ent — ^not 80 mucb upon the articulate voice of the
people — as upon abstruse and uncontroUable influ-
ences — ^moral — pbysical — commercial, and fiscai.
Sixty years ago— or less, the question was — " Who
are they that govem the world ?" Now the only
significant question is — <<What is it that govems
the world?"

Once it was an all-important matter, in the view
of those who would give direction, this way or that,
to European politics, to command the ear and con-
science of a monarch, or of his minister, or of bis
mistress. Of how mucb avail now may be any
secret influence of this sort ? It is less than notb-
ing ! Princes and statesmen themselves, with little
inclination to listen to a conscience-keeper — ^stand
aghast in front of those mighty evolutions of the
social system which are shaking the world. Civil-
ized communities were once as ships govemed by a
band at the helm i^ — they are now as rafts, borne on
the beaving bosom of an impetuous tide.

It is probable, tberefore, that the Jesuit Society,
not slow to read the lesson which events are placing
in its view, will abandon wbat it may deem a des-
perate endeavor to rule the world as from the depths
of closets and cabinets, and may at once address
itself to a task which, if it be more arduous and
more perilous, is more stimulating — that of ruling
it by placing itself in immediate communication
with the masses of the people, and by offering itself

PURPORT OP JESUITISM. 371

to ride foremost upon the surges of popular agi-
tation.

Henceforward, as we may surmise, it will not be
in the way of intrigue thåt the Society will make
itself felt ; — for intrigue is not an engine that can
be brought to bear upon millions of men ; but as
the promulgators of a political and social creed, ac-
ceptable to these masses in a sense of which it may
seem to be susceptible, when expounded to rude
ears: but which, in its inner and true meaning,
Carries entire the principles of an absolute despot-
ism. In times gone by, Jesuitism sought to rule
the world by pushing itself near and nearer still to
thrones ; or by actually edging itself on to seats of
power. But in times to come, as we may imagine,
it will seek to compass the same design by shoulder-
ing the mob forward in every popular assault upon
thrones. So long as monarchies rested solidly in
their piaces upon the field of Europe, the Jesuit
Society wished to stand upon the same terra firma;
but now that this ground trembles beneatb the foot,
it will commend itself, upon its own raft, to the
mighty deep — the "many waters" — the people !

In the present aspect of Europe it may seem
probable that monarchies, by a natural reaction,
will again become consbUdated ; yet never again, in
those countries where they have been overthrown
or violently shaken, can they resume the strength
they possessed as products of time. Meanwhile
the continuity of spiritual power has not been
broken ; it has not, for it is far too deeply seated in
human nature to be liable to any such disaster in
the convulsions that shake the political fabric.

372 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

Spiritual power, therefore, detaching itseif from
institutions in the stability of wbich it can no longer
oonfide, will lay its foundations broader : it wiU seek
to rest itseif, henceforward, without intervention —
upon iis aton proper b<isis, namely, the religious in-
Btinct deep seated in the bosoms of men universally.
If indeed this religious instinct were brought under
the sovereign control of heaven's own truth, no form
of that usurping despotism with wbich we have now
to do could hold its place on earth : but it is not so ;
and therefore ghostly tyranny still commands its
ancient field, and may yet, at its pleasure, pursue
its ends.

On this ground a question such as this may pre-
sent itseif (and it is more easily proposed than an-
swered), Whether spiritual power — we mean usurp-
ing power— shaU, in time to come, fall back upon
some one of its superannuated forms, seeking to
avail itseif of the still remaining recommendations
of antiquity ; or whether it shall not rather con«
struct itseif anew, and build for itseif another house,
and call into its service agents of another school,
and profess a creed — spliced on, as it were, to the
ancient creed, but essentially differing from it?

It would be by no means difiicult to sketch the
outlines of a New Faith, well adapted to the pre-
vailing notions and habits of Continental communi-
ties. Such a faith would retain everything belong-
ing to Romanism that is sensuous and imaginative ;
— everything of costume and of ceremonial that
does not offend good taste, or draw upon itseif sar-
casm : it would retain, moreover, a shadowy, though
not a dogmatic, orthodoxy : it might perhaps permit

PURPORT OF JESUmSM. 373

a Nicene profession to be " sung," but would never
allow it to be " said."

The lately-divulged doctrine of " Developraent'*
would seem as if it had been now announced as
the requisite preliminary to such a telinquishment
of ancient practices and principles as we are sup-
posing to be probable. It is manifest that if " the
Church" be endowed with a creative or re-creative
vital energy, enabling and authorizing it, from age
to age, to evolve what is new in belief or in worship,
or to bring to light what had previously slumbered
in darkness ; if, for example, the Church of the ninth
Century ought to be thought of as an authentic
product of the church of the third, although marked
by new features — then this same vital force — this
power of adaptation, may, as ages roll on, and as
human reason ripens, show its energies in the mode
of absorption or retrenchment. During the ninth
Century the Church put forth a verdant top, dark-
ening all the skies ; but in the nineteenth century
the tree may call in its sap from its luxuriant head,
while it strikes its roots far in to a new soil.

If, in this age of reason, certain dogmas or modes
of worship may seem to have fulfiUed their inten-
tion, and to have become encumbrances, rather than
aids, why may not the inherent "Development"
power rescind, withdraw, remove, such adjuncts?
It is not easy to see what difl&culty, either logicai or
theoretic, stands in the way to prevent the Church's
faculty of development from now shifting its posi-
tion, and acting as a faculty of abrogation. Once
it put its right hånd forth to bring from its treasury
things new : henceforward it will be pulling its left

374 lONATIUS LOYOLA.

hånd from its boeom, to withdraw these worn and
faded articles from their piaces.* In a rude age the
Church — always wisein herday — became flagrantly
polytheistic : in a philosophic, or rather a scientific
age, the same Church, equally wise, will become
pantheistic.

This is the very result that might seem highly
probable, as consequent upon a well-calculated en-
deavor to reinstate spiritual power throughout Eu-
rope, by means of an alliance between that scientific
pantheism which, at this time, is the prevalent be-
lief of the continental nations, and the Church, pro-
fessing its faculty of adaptation to the changing
aspects of the^ world. Let the Church absorb or
abrogate what, although held to be true and good,
as related to an age long gone by, is now felt to be
redundant, and which will not amalgamate with
the present scientific temper of mankind. Nothing
would be needed beyond that which such a faculty
of adaptation might supply, for compiling a creed,
and for instituting a worship, well adapted to the
taste and propensities of the European Continental
nations.

If an enterprise of this sort were seriously thought
of, the Jesuit body might consider itself to be pecu-
liarly qualified for attempting the task.

But shall not Christianity — shall not the religion
of the Scriptures, and shall not our " English Prot-
estantism" withstand and prevent, and bring to
nothing, any such machination ? Let it be beUeved
and hoped that this truth shall triumph over its
combined assailants !

But if it do, and in so far as such a triumph may

PURPORT OF JESUITISM. 375

depend upon the course pursued by those who should
be the champions of truth, a moral courage wiU be
demanded of them far exceeding that measure of
this excellent quality that has been displayed by
some of the best and wisest of mankind. The sub-
ject of this Essay points directly to an instance,
than which none can be more signal or instructive.
It is one which, in this {rface, especially invit^s at-
tention. The reader will have anticipated the wri-
ter's intention to say something of Pascal, and the
" Provincial Letters."

CHAPTER V.

PASCAL AND THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS.

The Provincial Letters won for their author an
imperishable literary farne ; yet they secnred for him-
self and his friends a very brief, and an inconclusive
controversial triumph. No reader of these composi-
tions can wonder that Pascal's farne as a writer should
have been so enduring ; but it is not perhaps every
reader who discerns the real cause of thatargument-
ative failure which so soon brought them to be
considered simply in the light of unmatched liter-
ary performances. Although it be true that Jesu-
itism must forever sustain the load of contempt
thrown upon it by Pascal's sarcastic pen, the So-
ciety very soon placed itself beyond the range of
an assault which at first had threatened to be fatal
to its very existence.

Jesuitism survived the plaudits with which the
Provincial Letters were greeted throughout Europe.
They were read with acclamation; nevertheless,
the Provincial Letters and the Society have floated
down the stream of time, side by side ; it, indeed,
was grievously vexed and annoyed, and yet neither
was it quashed, nor materially injured by them.
If a homely simile could be admitted in this in-
stance, the Provincial Letters might be corapared to
a large cutting from a thomy hedge with which
some luckless beast has so entangled his shaggy

THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS. 377

coat that his most desperate tossings and caperings
fail to shake it from its hold ; at length however he
gæs his way, tormented indeed, and yet not pierced
to his serious injury.

This failure to effect what he had intended,
namely — the overthrow of the credit and influence
of the Jesuits, has been attributed, and justly so in
measure, to the author's too great haste, or his in-
caution — not to say unfaimess — in throwing upon
the Society all the odium with which the extrava-
gances of certain of its writers might seem to cover
it. Moreover, Pascal's mode of argument may be
thought inequitable, in so far as he heaps upon
Jesuitism a mass of blame which a more ingenuous
controvertist would have taken care to distribute
among several religions bodies, not less culpable
than the Jesuits : in certain instances the earlier
orders had forestalled every thing in the way of per-
nicious casuistry. Jesuitism was especially culpable
only so far as it had anew put forth notions which,
but for it, would soon perhaps have melted into
oblivion.

Yet these are not the principal causes of PascaPs
failure to inflict a mortal wound upon his adversary.

Charmed as the reader of the Provincial Letters
is, and must be, by the wit and eloquence, the force
and fire of every page, he hastens on, and forgets
to ask why it is that, while the Jesuit tree is thus
shaken by a giant arm — its fixiit covering the
ground, and its fair boughs rent away from the
trunk — ^why it is that, while such an onslaught is
made upon the head and branches, the trunk and
root have not attracted the assailant's eye ; or

378 IGNATIUS LOYOLA.

scarcely for a moment ? On every page Pascal's
contemporaries, the ^' Revereod Fathers," are mock-
ingly saluted with their wonted appellation. But
these " Fathers," had they no predecessors ? had
not all one Father ? Are we to suppose that Pascal,
even if he had heard the name of St. Ignatius, had
nev er seen the Spiritual Exercises, or the Letter on
Obedience ; or that he knew nothing of the Cohsti-
tutions, or of the Directory ? * Such a supposition
is not admissible ; but if it be not, then must it
seem amazing that a mind such as was Pascal's
could have failed to perceive that every particle of
that intolerable casuistry which he reprobates, as
he finds it on the pages of Escobar, of Molina, of
Le Moine, of Barry, of Bauny, of Sanchez, and of
Vasquez, and every dogma of their spurious mor-
ality are the products — the direct and inevitable
products, of Jesuitism — such as Loyola made, and
left it !

But if, as we cannot but suppose, Pascal had
made himself in some degree familiar with the ca-
nonical documents of the Society, and if, as we are
also compelled to believe, the obvious connection of
cause and effect in this instance had piesented itself
to his view, then why does he not point it out ?
Why not indicate that faet of which he must have
been conscious? Why treat the subalterns with
unsparing severity, while he spares the principals ?
Why msh with a ruthless vehemence upon the
Jesuitism of the seventeeth century, while, over the
same Jesuitism of the sixteenth, he throws the veil
of a reverential silence ? No acceptable reply can
be given to these questions.

THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS. 379

Ålas, the infirmity of human nature ! How has
truth suifered in the world, from age to age, from
the want of moral courage, even among the most
conscientious and enUghtened of men ! In faet, it
is these who, by their timidity, just where and when
they should have feared none but God — it is these
who have betrayed Christianity, and have sent it
down to their successors, laden with corruptions : it
is these who, although it was but a slender service
they could render it by endorsingit with their bright
names, have inflicted upon it a deep and lasting
injury by sustaining,*in this manner, the credit of
those spurious systems with which themselves stood
connected. It was in this manner that the illus-
trious confessors of Port Royal lost themselves, and
lost truth for Prance ; and thus that they left their
country open to that deluge of Atheism which in
the next century swept everything before it.

Oh, but — " St. Ignatius" was one of the Church's
own — a " Saint," warranted to be such by the vicar
of Christ ! Moreover the Society, and the Spuitual
Exercises, and the Constitutions, had, after a care-
ful examination on the part of the only authority
on earth in matters of religion, been authenticated,
and had been commended to the reverential regards
of Christendom. This was more than enough.
This was why the "Reverend Pathers" are de-
nounced, and are held up to contempt and execra-
tion, although the system which they had too faith-
fully expounded, and the men whose genuine dis-
ciples they were, must be neither blamed — nor
barely mentioned, or — not more than once !

If in some cautiously-worded paragraph, convey-

380 lONATms LOYOLA.

ing a qualified disapproval, Layola's name had
found a place in the Provincial Letters, what con-
solation would it bave afforded to the affectionate
admirere of a man so good and great as was Pas-
cal ! Alas ! it does not appear in any such man-
ner! A reader of the Provincial Letters, if by
chance he were ignorant of the history of the So-
ciety, would not gather from these splendid compo-
sitions so miich as a particle of information relating
to its author, or to its origin ; — to its date — its early
principles — ^its permanent laws. Such a reader
would undoubtedly suppose that those enormous
perversions of which the Jesuit writers — PascaPs
contemporaries — are convicted, had all sprung from
their own sophisticated heads, and more sophisti-
cated hearts : he would naturally imagine that the
Jesuit Society was at the least a thousand years old,
and that it fumished another instance, among so
many similar instances, of an utter departure from
the spirit and intention of its founders.

It is amazing that, while Pascal is arraigning the
Fathers with whom he had to do, on each princi-
pal point of Christian morality, he should have
made no attempt, either to show that the errors he
denounces were the products of Jesuit principles,
or that they were not so, and were chargeable upon
those who then promulgated them. The vicious
doctrines maintained by the "Reverend Fathers"
were either the proper fruits of Loyola's Institute,
or they were flagrant perversions of it. If its
proper fruits, then Pascal should have thought him-
self morally obliged to profess that belief, at all
risks ; — ^but if peiTersions, then it would have been

THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS. 381

an aet at once of generosity and of justice to hold
up tbis faet to the world, and to set the farne of
a saint elear from the implied opprobrium thrown
upon it by the conduct of his successors and false
followers.

It is not a question with which we have anything
to do, in this instance, whether, in his citation of
the Jesuit writers, he has always been duly attentive
to the sense of the context ; or whether his incul-
pations have always been entirely well founded.
It is enough that he himself fuUy thought them to
be so ; and that the passages he adduces in support
of his allegations were, in his own opinion, valid
and sufficient for the purpose. But if so, how
amazing is that course of things which is necessa-
rily involved — on the one band, in these allegations,
and on the other, in the implicit approval that is
conveyed, by his silence, as to Loyola, and his In-
stitute ! The facts thus implied, are these : —

A body of men professedly ministers of religion,
and recognized as such by the Church — men ac-
complished, intelligent, and, by general acknowl-
edgment, superior, as a class, to their contempora-
ries, had — almost suddenly, brought themselves to
adopt, and to employ, and to promulgate, without
shame, a system of casuistry the most flagrantly
immoral. Nothing like it, according to Pascal's
own showing, had the world ever seen or heard of
before ; its enormity outstretches even his command
of language to expose it ! Whether warrantable
or not, such is the tone and drift of page after page
of the Provincial Letters.

But did not it occur to so sagacious a mind — to

382 lOlTATIUS I/OYOLA.

one 80 accustomed to trace the connection of cause
and effect — ^that so Strange a departure from the
simplicUy of trutli — a departure, affecting the mem-
bers of a Society which had spread itself over Eu-
rope, must have had a Sufficient Cause ? Did
Pascal indeed think it credible that a religions com-
munity, so numerous, so powerful, so eminent in
its accomplishments and gifts, had, as in a moment,
and without the intervention of a transition period,
sunk down into this slough of comiption ? Was
there no rational account to be given of a declen-
sion so instantaneous and universal? Had it no
history ? *

Nothing would have seemed more natural — ^noth-
ing more imperatively called for on the part of an
impartial and unshackled controvertist, than, while
dealing with his sinning contemporaries, to have
travelied back a few years — and a very few years
would have sufficee for tracing to its source the
putresoent stream of Jesuit moraUty; or else to
have shown that this Ganges of pestilential filth
had no natural rise on earth's surface, but that it
had leaped at once from the nether world !

If indeed the bad theology and worse morality
of the " Reverend Fathers" — Pascal's contempora-
ries, were attributable to these degenerate men, with
how much argumentative advantage might he have
confronted them with their wise and saintly prede-
cessors, whose bright example they had forgotten,
whose instructions they had rejected, and upon
whose Constitutions and canons they had put con-
tempt ! If thé case were so, why did not Pascal
cite St. Ignatius — page by page — why did he not

THE PROVmCIAL LETTERS. 383

bring forward chapter after chaptér^ of the Con-
stitutions — why not adduce, entire, the Letter on
Obedience, by means of which he might at once
have convinced the world that his immediate ad-
versaries had sinned against their master as giiev-
ously as he proved them to have sinned against the
Gospel — against the early Pathers, and against the
general sense of the Catholic Church. It is manifest
that, from such a mode of attack, the Jesuits of the
17th Century could not have defended themselves.
If there had been ground for the summons, St. Ig-
natius might have been called from his seat among
the canonized, to sit in judgment upon, and to con-
demn, his apostate foUowers.

Nothing like this did the author of the Provincial
Letters attempt. He dared not attempt it : he dared
not put to his own conscience so simple a question
as this — Whence had sprung the ethical enormities
which he was denouncing? He could not permit his
eye to glance, even for a moment, from the foliage
and branches, to the main trunk and roots of the
Jesuit tree.

Or if he did so for a moment, it was not more.
Toward the close of the thirteenth Letter, where
the author con viets his opponents of a corrupt du-
plicity in citing the contradictory opinions of their
writers, he says — " C'est done cette varieté qui vous
confond davantage. L'uniformité seroit plus sup-
portable : et il n'y a rien de plus contraire aux ordres
exprés de Saint Ignace et de vos premiers généraux
que ce melange conius de toutes sortes d'opinions.
Je vous en parlerai peut-étre quelque jour, mes péres :
et on sera surpris de voir combien vous étes déchus

384 lORATIUS LOYOLA.

du premier esprit de votre institut, et que voe pro-
pres généraux ont prévu que le déréglement 'de
votre doctrine dans la morale pourroit étre funeste
non seulement å votre Société, mais encore å
l'Eglise universelle."

It would have been well, if, instead of this vague
and hurried reference to the ^^ ezplicit injunctions"
of ''Saint Ignatius," and of his successors, the author
had told his readers where these injunctions might
be found — in what work, book, and chapter, oc-
curred anysuch cautionary passages, or what might
possibly pass as such. Then it would ^ave been
necessary to show that the import of them — ^what-
ever it might be — ^was not rendered nugatory by
the equally express and more formal declaration of
principles set forth in the Letter on Obedience, and
in the Constitutions. Pascal in various passages
convincingly shows the vicious tendency of the
Jesuit doctrine of "probability," or of the lawfiilness
of any aet apparently immoral, in defence of which
some authority, or some shred of reason, can be
adduced. But this doctrine is most explicitly taught
in several piaces of the Constitutions. In those di-
rections, too, for the guidance of consciences which
occur in the Spiritual Exercises, it is affirmed to be
the duty of a Jesuit — at the command of his Su-
perior — to declare that what his eyes tell him is
black or white, is the contrary. The entire drift
of the Letter on Obedience is this, that every
member of the Society is bound to surrender his
indiyidual judgment, understan ding, and conscience,
to the will of the Superior, whose word or ''nod," is
to be his one and only law. A passage already cited

THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS. 386

(page 326) from the Constitutions, seems, on the
face of k, designed to administer a littie relief to
scrupulous consciences ; but it ends in a broad affir*
mation to this effect, that no aet is to be regarded
as immoral which a Superior commands to be per«-
petrated, if, in doing so, he alleges some particle of
probability in its vindication ; and if such an aet, in
the opinion of the Superior, shall tend to promote,
"the greater glory of God," and the welfare of "the
Order."

The writer of this thirteenth Letter threaténs,
that " some day perhaps" he will bring " Saint Ig-
natius" and the earlier Generals into court, for the
purpose of confounding his opponents. It was well
for himself that he made no such attempt. " Per-
haps," in some hour of leisure, he actually looked
into the documents whence he had expected to draw
his materials : a glance might suffice to convince
him that, on this ground, nothing could be achieved
that would not afford an occasion of triumph to the
Jesuits, and of deep perplexity and confusion to the
" Church, Catholic-Apostolic, and Roman."

The Provincial Letters are dated in the spring of
the year 1656: Loyola's Letter on Obedience, in
which the worst sophisms of the system are con-
densedly expressed, is dated April 1, 1663. Littie
more, therefore, than a century intervenes between
the two dates ; and it was within this brief period
that those causes were to be looked for — had thero
been any such — which had brought about a degen-
eracy quite unexampled in the history of religions
communities. Nothing on earth, according to Pas-
caPs account, was so prodigious — so appalling, so

17

886 lOHATIUS L070LA.

shamelessly immoral, as was the doctrine and prac-
tice of the Jesuits of his time ; and yet such a state
of things had spning out of a scheme which, by
the silence he observes toward it, he must be held
to have thought good — or at least as not chargeable
with the pernicious sophisms which he assaib.

We have said that little more than a century in-
tervenes between Pascal's time, and the date of the
Epistle, in which the germ of Jesuitism is to be
found. But in looking more exactly to the facts,
this allowance of time during which a departure
from its principles might have taken place, is found
to be far too ample. Several of the writers, from
whose pages he cites passages of the most repre-
hensible kind, are of a date that touches near
upon the very era of the i^ounder of the Society.
In some instances it can scarcely be said that any
interval separates these writers from their prede-
cessors— the actual Fathers of Jesuitism. Saurez,
80 much cited by Pascal, abridges this period by
more than half; and others so far shorten it as
to preclude utterly the supposition that any great
change of principle, or any gradual degeneracy,
could have had place within it.*

I^ in any instance at all, principles of analogy
may be taken as grounds of probable reasoning — ^if
at all the known course of human affairs may be
regarded as uniform — if the history of religions
sects, and especially of the monastic bodies, may
seem to sustain a general inference, then must we

* Sanchez published his principal work in 1593, and died 1610.
Molina published in 1568 ; twelve yeais, only, after the death of
Loyola.

THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS. 387

be compelled to admit that the Jesuit casuistry,
which had continued to excite against the Society
the indignation of the soundest part of the Catholic
Church, throughout the early years of the 17th
Century, must have been the product — the proper
and direct consequence, of the principles upon which
the Society had been established in the middle of
the preceding century. Did so obvious a conclu-
sion veil itself from PascaPs keen sight? or was
it a task which must have baffled his powers of
analysis and of synthesis to trace and establish the
casual connection between the pages of Molina and
of Bauny, on the one side, and those of Loyola,
Lainez, and Bobadilla, on the other? Nothing
would have been more easy, to a mind like his, than
to follow this short course of reasoning: no one
step in it was a leap. The involutions of the Cy-
cloid are far less easy to demonstrate than are the
Windings of Jesuit sophistry. Ancient errors relat-
ing to a vacuum, or to the tenacity of elastic fluids,
were as inveterate, and were as diflicult of disper-
sion, as were those false premises on which Loyola
had constructed his scheme. Pascal did not want
either the intelligence or the logicai habitude which
8uch a task demanded ; nor did he want a sincere,
although it was an infirm and misdirected consci-
entiousness: — ^what he did want was that which
the loftiest rainds have so often wanted — ^the free-
dom of soul — the moral intrepidity — the thorough
love of truth, and profound fear of God, which
would have carried him irresistibly forward, from
the abominations of the Jesuit casuistry, to the
deep-seated immorality and impiety of the Jesuit

888 lONATIUS LOTOLA.

Inøtitute; and thence onward to those mistaken
doctrines — ^the mediæval, and still earlier, church
errors, which had spread a broad and solid founda-
tion for a scheme, such as that of tbe Society. The
fear of God, and the love of tnitb, must have led a
mind like Pascal's, if unshackled — ^whither? — from
out the Church of Rome !

Nothing can be more conspicuously evident than
that the principles and practices of Confession,
Manifestation of tbe conscience, of Delation, Abso-
lute obedience, of Probability, and the like, as
defined and enforced in the canonical writings of
the Society, resulted unavoidably in that debauched
morahty which Pascal exposes and condemns. But
then these doctrines, and these practices, necessarily
fatal as they are to virtue and piety, had not only
receivéd authentication from Rome, but, though
diverse, and in some respects novel, they had all
sprung out of Romanism. They were so far ex-
aggerations of Romanism, that it would not have
been possible to deal with them in a conclusive
manner without coming very near to the ground
which the Reformers of Germany and Switzerland
had made their own. It would have been a most
perilous, if not desperate endeavor, to excind Jesuit-
ism, and to save the Church ; and those who would
have hazarded themselves in any such attempt
mudt have consented to be bound in the bundle of
perdition with heretics.

Pascal dared not even approach the boundary of
that argumentalive area which he filled. He drove
his adversaries from off the spot on which he had
alighted; — ^but hedid not ventiu*e to advance a step

THE PROVmCIAL LETTERS. 389

from that pcMsition in pursuit of them. The broad
shadow of "the Church" rested upon all beyond
the narrow circle over which the lash of his indig-
nant eloquence held his enemies at bay;-*-they
retired beyond the reach of it, and they were safe.
He could not follow them, because he must not in-
quire conceming the history of their Institute — an
Institute which Christ's vicar had solemnly sanc-
tioned. The reader of the Provincial Letters is left
to imagine the Society was as old as any of the
religions communities ; — or as old as the pyramids.

What is it, in a word, that this great man
achieved? Endowed by nature — let us rather say,
gifted from on high, with powers of mind which
very few of the human race have been singled out
to possess — ^gifted also with moral qualities of the
finest order— taught moreover to yield his mind and
soul to the obedience of faith — thus prepared by
Heaven's own hånd — prepared as one only in a
thousand years is prepared — to stand "for thede-
fence and konfirmation of the Gospel," what Pascal
actually achieved, when cailed forth before a listen-
ing Europe to encounter the Goliath of immoral
casuistry, was — to leave to posterity an unmatched
literary production — a model of French writing — a
book which Voltaire extols with glee, and which
Atheistic Encyclopedists set themselves to edit with
willing industry !

In behalf of the Christianity of Prance, nothing
of permanent consequence was effected by the' Pro-
vincial Letters. The Reverend Fathers speédily
washed themselves clean — or clean to their own
taste, in their own ditch — repaired their torn coats,

390 IONATIU8 LOTOLA.

and applied their own salve to their lacerated
shoulders. The Society stood erect on its feet, and,
without a blush, confronted the scom of the world.
Nay, it triumphed ; it prevailed against its assail-
ants, it drove them from the field, it held that
field open for the advance of its successors — the
men of the Encyclopedia, and of the Revolution.

Pascal and his illustrious friends of Port Royal
fbrfeited their apostleship as the restorers of a gen-
uine Christianity in France. They had received
liberally all the gifts requisite for the purpose — all
but the highest — a courage more rare than that of
the martyr. Readily would several of these great
men have trod a path such as that which Latimer
and Ridley and Hooper trod ; but they dared not
walk on with God and conscience to — they knew
not what consequence — ^perhaps till they found
themselves abreast with Luther, Calvin, and Me*
lancthon !

France, after the horrors of the Huguenot per-
secution, coUapsed ; for the Port Royal men had
failed to do that for their country which might have
given it a new, a vital impulse ; and its actual con-
dition at the present moment — its want of deep
and powerful religions convictions — its want of
Christianity, may be traced up, through no very
circuitous chain of effects and causes, to that fatal
time when the only body of men which, in modern
times, France has possessed, influenced by a pro-
found and genuine belief in the Gospel — held that
belief subordinate to their pledged submission to
Church authority.

— " Gråces å Dieu, je n'ai d'attache sur la terre

THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS. 391

qu'å la seule Eglise Catholique, Apostolique et
Romaine, dans laquelle je veux vivre et mourir, et
dans la communion avecr le pape son souverain
chef, hors de laquelle je suis tres persuadé qu'il
n'y a point de salut." — 17 th Letter.

Thoroughly sincere, no doubt was this profession.
But a sincere belief, is not all that will be required
of those whose endowments and acquirements
qualify them to ascertain the rational foundation
of their belief, and whose position before the world,
as teachers and writers, requires them to acquaint
themselves with those facts, and with those argu-
ments, of which they will hear nothing within the
circle of their own communion.

In France, and at the time of the struggle be-
tween the men of Port Royal and the Jesuits,
Christianity was shut up within precincts so nar-
row as that, when this one fortress had been car-
ried and demolished — all was lost. Among our-
selves, and in this age, no catastrophe of a precisely
similar kind can be thought of as probable. The
Gospel, powerfuUy entrenched as it is, in this Chris-
tian land, and widely diffused and deep-seated in
the bosoms of men moving and acting under inde-
pendent influences, seems to stand exempt from any
perils to which it might become liable through the
plots or endeavors of any single adversary, or even
of several combined. It has little to fear from
conclaves, or from conspiracies hatched in secret
chambers : let Jesuits, or others like them, do their
worst.

The struggle of our English Christianity will
not be with bodies of men, whether Romish or In-

303 IONATIU8 unroLA.

fidel ; but with thai ominous tendency of the hu-
man mind, too dearly indicated, as it is at this
moment, from end to end of Europe, wbich while it
relieves us from anxiety r^arding the mischievous
agency of individuals or of parties, inspires a deep
awe, ir not alarm, as it announces the final conflict
of First Principles, touching religions Belie£

NOTES.

Note to page 34.

No parpose which the writer of this volame has had in view
would have been subserved by his attempting the precarious task
of ascertaining disputed datas, connected with Loyola's personal
history, or of shedding, perhaps, some ray of light upon single and
unimportant incidents in that history. The history of the Founéer
of Jesuitism is accepted as authentic in the main, at the hånds of his
friends and contemporaries : — ^little heed being given, on the one
hånd, to the foolish exaggerations with which they have encum-
bered it : or on the other, to the invectives and vehement inculpa-
tions of those whose antagonist zeal has been unchecked by can-
dor or Christian charity.

The " Biographers" referred to in this volume are those collected
in the Acta Sanctorum of the BoIIandists (as well as separately
publlshed) and whose pages have supplied Orlandinus, the aa-
thorized historian of the Order, with his materials: Of these wri-
ters, the one whose Life of St. Ignatius would be singled out as the
most agreeable and comprehensive by readers whose curiosity might
not carry them on through folios, is the Jesuit —

John Peter Maffei. His life of St. Ignatius Loyola is not
of great length ; it is composed in a good Latin style, is as free
from what might be offensive as ought to be expected : and it ap-
parently deserves to be considered as authentic. It has been sep-
arately printed, but is usually met with appended to this writer's
History of the Indies. It first appeared in 1585. He seems to
have drawn his materials firom the notes of Polancus, a contem-
porary and companion of the General. From the same source,
probably, Orlandinus derived what he has, with unrestrained ampli-
tude, woven into his history of the Founder of the Order.

One who was a daily companion of the General — a Spaniard
named Ludovico Gkmsalvo — availing bimself of the opportunities
which his position afibrded him, receiTed from the lip« of his spizit-

394 NOTES.

val Fathør raeh paitiealan of hk peraonal hialoiy ai the hamilitj
of a taint miglit pennil him to convej. These narratioiis he had
■trang together in a manner and in a atyle which inspires confi>
dence ; and so far as the Memoin of Gonsalro extend — ^which is
onl j to the eommencement of Lojok's pabUc eooise — this writer is
pfobablj the safest of those guides among whom a choice must be
made.

The Jesoit Pietro Ribadeneira, arailing himself— as a sort of text
^-of Gonsalro's materiab, expands them into a histoiy of Tolami-
nons bnlli, and in the course of which he fieqnently deviates firom
the path ofother Jesuit writers— particularly firom that of MaffeL
As to what is supernatural in Loyola's histoiy, Rabadeneira is as
abstinent and cautious as he well could be, and thereforo he has, so
much the more, a claim^to confidence. Nerertheless he and his
eoUeagues write alwajs with the intention and feeiing of the ap-
pointed advoeates of their Order.

The Life of Loyoia, bj Oblandinus, constitnting the fiist portion
of that writer's history of the Society, is a veiy elaborate work, ex-
tending through the double columns of 436 closely-printed folio pa.
ges; and it may well be held to comprise all materials which a
writer so industrious, and so well informed, could derive from the
eopious stores placed for this purpose at his command.

NoU to page 28.

Whether Ignatius was the youngest of this numerous family, or
the youngest of the sons, has been a point debated among tfie bi-
ographeri. Once for all, the author will say, and in relation to
▼eiy many instances of a aimilar kind, that he would think his own
time and that of his reader thrown away in the endeavor — even if
successful — to weigh evidences and ascertain the truth, in such in-
stances. No consequence, having an important bearing upon any
great question, can possibly attach to details of this sort; or even
to some points in the personal history of Loyoia which might seem
of more weight and magnitude. A volume might soon be filled
with the mere statement of diacrepancks among the biographexs,
and with fbrmally-pronounced judgments thereupon.

NOTES TO CHAPTER I. PART II.

Whether an attempt to ascertain Loyola's share in the litemry
documents of the Sockty could now be made with any chance of

NOTES. 395

a lUcceMfol result, I do not know. The inqutry eould, howeTer,
entail no conøequences beyond guch as may attach to any ordinaij
question of iiterary antiquarianisin. It might affect, in some de-
gree, the opinion we form of his personal character, and of tbe com-
pass o£ his mind. As to the Jesuit system, it is enough that we have
in our hånds its code and formularies, such as they have been, and
have continued to be, since tbe time of the last recension of them
under the hånd of Loyola himself.

As to the Spuitual Exeicises, there is great reason to believe that
— perhaps with some suggestions from his friends, they are Loyola's
own : the body of them is probably attributable to a very early pe-
riod in his religions course ; the latter portions having been added
fVom time to time, and embracing therefore the results of his large
experience in the care of souls. •

Some readers may wish to have before them a few samples, at
least, of the book itself, and which may not happen to hare fallen
into their bands. The recent English translation to which reference
is made in the text, is entitled — " The Spiritual Exercises of St
Ignatius Loyola, translated from the authorized Latin : with ex-
tracts from the iiteral version and notes of the Rev. Father Rothaan,
Father General of the Company of Jesus ; by Charles Seager, M.A.,
to which is prefixed a Preface by the Right Rev. Nicholas Wise-
man, D.D., Bishop of Melipotamus, and Coadjutor of the Midland
District of England. London, 1847." The leamed writer of thia
** Preface" prepares the uninstructed reader for the disappointment
which is likely to attend a mere perusal of the " Exercises." He
says — ** In the Exerdses of St. Ignatius many will no doubt be dis-
appointed, when for the first time they look into them. They have
heard of the wonderfUl effects which they have produced, of the
innumerable conversions which they have wrought, of the spiritual
perfection to which they have led ; and they will see in the text of
the work itself nothing but simplicity of form, plainness of sentiment
and diction, hints often rather than explanations, germs of thought
rather than developments, skeletons more oflen than perfect forms,
sketches instead of pictures; — ^no poetiy, no emotions, no high-
flown ideas, no enthusiastic aspirations; but maxims of etemal im-
port inculcated with the calmness of a philosopher; the stemest
truths delivered as obvious and self-demonstrating propositions; the
sublimest moral lessons of the GkMipel, self-denial, renunciation of
the world, contempt of life, perpetual continency, and blind obe-
dience, taught as simple virtnes attainable to any Christian. And
yet throughout thexe is a manifest conviction of the adequacj of the

396 HOTBS«

BMiMlotlMeiidfiatlMwriler'siiiiiid; thenknoCliiiii^expeiimeii-
tel| nothing optkmal, noUung left to be diaeovered; bat ereiy
Møthod M laid down ai æitain, eveiy lesolt rackoned on as rare."

The oiigiiial Latm of a pottkm at leaal of the paasages dted or
nfémå to in the text ahall now be laid before the reader, for hi*
ftnther ■atiaftftion ai to the true meaning of the Jerait doeomenta.

Pa99age9 eUed cnr-'pagt 2SS7.

Sknt enim deambalaie, iter facere, et carrere, exercitia rant cor-
poralia ; ita qaoqae preparare et disponere wnimam ad tollendaa
affectiones omnea male mdinataa, et iia aoblatia, ad quørendom et
mTeniendain volnntatem Del, ciica Tit« raæ inatitationem et salu-
tern animø, ezeicitia ▼ocantnr apiritoalia. — Exer, Spirit. AtmoUU,

Page 231.

Cieatiia eat homo ad hane finem, at Dominom Deom aaam lau-
det, ae jerereatar eique aerviena tandem aalTua fiat Reliqaa vero
aopra tenram aita creata aunt hof&nia ipaioa cauaa, at eum ad finem
ereationia aaa prosequendom jarent : ånde aeqaitur, utendum illia
▼el abatinendam eatenaa eaae, qaatenaa ad proaecutionem finia vel
eonferant Tel obaant daapropter debemoa abaqae differentia nos
habere eiica lea creataa omnea (prout libertati arbitiii nostri sab-
jecta rant et non prohibitæ) : ita ut (quod in nobis est) non qa«ra-
mos aanitatem magia quam »gritadinem, neque divitiaa paapertati,
Jumorem contemptai, vitam longam brevi præferamoa. Sed con-
aentanegm eat ex omnibua ea demom qon, ad finem ducont, eli-
gere ae deaiderare. — Exer. Spirii. Princip,

Page 233.

Prima eat, nt qnotiea id peccati aeu delicti genoa homo commiae-
nt, mann pectori admota, doleat de lapaa : qaod fieri poteat etiam
aaaiatentibua aliia, nec advertentibus.

Secanda est, at aub noctem, nameratia comparatiaqoe invicem
ponctia linearom, qaarom piior priori examini, poaterior poateriori
aaaignata, attendat, an a priore Examine oøque ad aecandum aUr
qaa aæceaaerit emendatio.

Teztia est, at conferart diei æcunde atque prseedentia Examina
inricem: conaiderana ecqoid aibi emendationis intervenerit.

Ctuarta ut, coUatia Hebdomadarum duarum inter ae Examiniboøy
pari modo facts vel offiiae« emendationis rationem habeat

NOTES. 397

Item notandum est ex aequentibas fignrii, primam ceterw loa-
giorem deputari diei primæ, puta Dominics : secundam vero diei
Lunæ, paulo breTiorem : et ita deinceps : cam par rit, diminui in
dies eRatonim nnmerara. — Exer. Spirit, Ezam. Partie.

Primum præludiam est ratio quedam componendi locL Pro qua
notandum est, quod in qaavis meditatione rive contemplatione de
re corporea, ut puta de Christo, effin^ndus erit nobia, Becundnm
▼irionem quamdam imaginariam, locus corporeus, id quod contem-
piamur representans : veluti templum aut mons, in quo reperiamuø
Christum Jesum, vel Mariam Virginem, et cætera quæ spectant ad
contemplationis nostræ aigumentum.

Sin autem speculationi subest res incorporea, ut est consideratio
peccatorum nunc oblata; poterit loci constructio talis esse, ut ri per
imaginationem cemamus animam nostram in corpore isto corrupti-
bili velut in carcere constrictam, hominem quoque ipsum in hac
miseriæ valle inter animalia bruta exulantem. — Exer. Spirit. I.
Hebd.

Page VQl.

" This comporition of the place (making up the scene) is of great
Utility in fixing the attention, which is thus prevented fh>m wan-
dering, or if it wandera, is easUy recalled."

Nevertheless it should in candor be stated that theauthors of the
Directory append a caution at this place to the fbllowing effect : —
" To avoid dwelling too much on this fabrication of the place, as it
is not itself the end of meditatiqn, but only the Christian means for
attaining that end. For there is no doubt," they say, " that this
(faculty) comes more naturally to those wbo have a lively imagina-
tion. Others who find more difficulty therein, should not expend
upon it so much labor as to break down their fa^^lties, and thereby
impede the meditation."

" The fifth Exercise, which is the application of the senses, is
very easy and useful, enabling us Christians by the imagination to
see persons, hear words and noises, and to touch or kiss either
piaces or persons, which should be done with all due reverence and
&ar. St. Ignatius applies the sense of smell to perceiving the fra-
grance of the mind from. the gifts of God, and that of taste to tast-
ing his sweetness, both which actions imply the presence of the
sabject of our meditations.

398 NOTES.

** But what we mean beie b that, having meditated on the mcar
natioD and natiTitj, we shoald leparatelyapplj the lenies to it, and
In like manner with the other ecenes in the liié of Chnrt. Thk does
not mean that the appUeaiion of the senaee is to be eeparated firom
the matter of the meditation, but that the application of the senees
b the chief end of meditation on the myiteriee.

« This diffen from meditation, inaamuch ai the latter ie more ele-
vated and intelleetual, and flies off to conåder higher gubjects:
.... which the former doee not do, bat inaiate more apon the visi-
bk adjuncta.

" There ia a double Utility in thia, for when the mind ia incapaci-
tated from the conaideration of loftier aubjecta it ia raiaed thereto by
dwelling upon the lower. Sometimea alao the mind, aatiated bj
higher myateriea, deacenda and finds reat and conaolation in the
application of the aenaea to auch myateriea.'' — Direct, cap. zx.

Colloquinm primum fit ad Dominam noatram Chriati Matrem,
flagitando interceaaionem ejua apud Filium, et gratiæ impetrationem
nobia tripUciter neceæaria. Primo, ut intemam criminum noetro-
rum cognitionem ae deteatationem aentiamua : aecundo, ut, operum
noatrorum agnoacentea abhorrenteaque ordinem perveraum, correcto
eo, noametipaoa aecundum Deum recte ordinemus : teitio, ut, pep*
apecta et danmata mundi pravitate. a rebua mundanis ae Tania nos
recipiamua. Hia ezpletia, aemel recitetur Ave Maria. — Exer. Spint,
I. Hebd.

Pages 238—239.

Poateriua Tero conaistit in poacenda intima pænarum, quaa dam-
nati luunt, apprehenaione : ut, ai quando me ceperit divini''amoii8
oblivio, aaltem a peccatia supphcii timor coerceat.

Punetum primum eat apectare per imaginationem vaata inferorum
incendia, et animaa, igneia quibuadam corporibua, velut ergaatulia,
incluaaa.

Secundum audire imaginarie planctua, ejulatua, vociferationea,
atque blaaphemias in Chriatum et Sanctos ejua, illinc erumpentea.

Tertium, imaginario etiam olfactu fumum, aulftir, et aentin«
cujuadam aeu fiscia atque putredinia a graveolentiam peraentire.

Ctuartum, gustare aimiliter rea amariaaimaa, ut lacrymaa, ranco-
rem, conacientiøque vermem.

Ctuintum, tangere quodammodo ignea illoa, quorum tactu axkim«
ipaø amburuntur.

NOTES. 399

Colloquendo interim cum Chzuto in memoriam addncende eront
illoram animæ

Septima est ut eamdem ob causam omni me privem lacia claritate,
januig ae feneatria clausb tantisper dam illic moror, nisi quamdiu
legendiim aat vescendom erit. — Exer, SpirU. I. Hebd.

Page 240.

duarta est, utipsam aggrediar Contemplationem, nunc prostratos
hami et pronus aut supinas jacens, nunc sedens aut stans, et eo me
componens modo quo sperem facilius id consequi quod opto. Ubi
adverti hæc duo debent: Primum, quod si flexis genibus, vel in alio
quovis situ, voti compos fiam, nil requiram ultra. Secundum, quod
in puncto, in quo assecutus fuero quæsitam devotionem, conquies-
cere debeo, sine transcurrendi anxietate, donec mihi satisfecero. —
Exer. Spirit. I. Hebd,

Page 240.

Tertio, circa ipsam carnem, ut inflictum sentiat dolorem admotis
gestatisque ciliciis, fUnibus, aut vectibus ferreis, vel incussis ver-
beribus ae piagis, vel aliis austeritatis generibus assumptis. In
quibus tamen omnibus magis ezpedire videtur, ut doloris sensus in
carne tantum sit, nec penetret ossa cum infirmitatis periculo. Quare
flagellis potissimum utemur ex funiculis minutis, que ezteriores
affligunt partes, non autem adeo interiores ut valetudinem adver-
øam causare possint. — Exer. Spirit. I. Hebd.

Page 242. •

Præludium primum ex historia dependet, quæ reeensenda est ab
egressu beatæ Virginis ex oppido Nazareth : quo scilicet modo, jam
nono mense gravida, et insidens asinæ (ut pie meditari licet), ae
Joseph comes, cum ancillula, et bove profecti sunt Bethlehem, tri-
butum a Cesare exactum pro se soluturi.

Secundum vero deducendum erit ex consideratione itineris, æsti-
mata ejus longitudine, obliquitate, lenitate, vel asperitatc passim
occurrente. Deinceps etiam nativitatis locum rimabimur, speluncæ
similem, latum vel angustum, planum vel ereetum, commode vel
incommode paratum.— £xer. SpirU. II. Hebd.

JPage 245.

Post orationem prøparatoriam cum tribus jam dietis PnBludiiti
apprima condacet| quinque imaginarios sensus circa primam et se-

400 NOTES.

V

cmdam CoDtemplatioiieiii eo qni ■eqaituT modo exercere, proat res
•nbjecta foret

PuDctam primum erit, leciiiidiim imaginationem reipicere per-
■onas omnM: et nolalk qoø ciica eai oceurrent, cizcomstantiu
iitifiUiem nostram elicere.

Seeandain, Telut aadiendo quid loqQantaii ant loqai eas deceai,
onmia in mam nostrum attrahere.

Terliuiii, interiore qnodam gustu et olfactu lentire, quanta sit
•aavitaa et dulcedo anime, diviniB donis ae Tiitatibiia imbuta, juzta
rationem penonæ qaam conåderamuø ; adaptando nobis ea, qun
ftuctum aliqaem afferre poeaint

Quartum, per intemum tactum attrectare, ae deosculari vetti-
menta, loca, Teatigia, ceteraque penonia tatibua conjuncta : ando
fiat nobii devotåouiB, vel boni cujoslibet ei»ntaalifl major acceaoio.
^Exer. SpirU, IL Htbd,

Pagts 247, 248.

Preladiain primum erit hiatorica qusdam oonaideratio Chziati ex
nna parte, et ex altera Laciferi : quonim uterque omnes bominee
ad ae vocat, aub vexiUo auo congregandoa.

Secundum eat ad conatructionem loci, ut repreaentetur nooia
eampaa ampliaaimua circa Hieroaolymam, in quo Dominaa J£sns
Chriatua tamquam bonorum hominum omnium aummua Dux aaais-
tat. Ruraum alter campua in Babylonia, ubi ae Lucifer malorum
et adveraaiiorum Ducem exhibeat.

Tertium ad gratiam petendam illud erit, ut poacamua expiorataa
habere fraudea mali Ducia, invocata aimul divina ope ad eaa vitan-
daa : veri autem optimique Imperatoria Chriati*agnoscere morea in-
genuoB, ae per gratiam imitari poaae.

Punctum primum eat, imaginari coram oeuUa meia, apud campum
Babylonicum Ducem impiorum in cathedra ignea et fumosa ædere,
hombilem figura, vultuque terribilem.

Secundum eat, advertere quomodo convocatoa dæmonea innu-
meroa per totum orbem spargit ad nocendum, nulUs civitatibua et
locia, nullia peraonarum generibua immunibua relictia.

Tertium, attendeie cujuamodi concionem habeat ad miniatros
anoa, quoa inatigat, ut, correptis injectiaque lacqueia et catenia,
hominea primum trahant (quod fere contingit) ad cupidatem divi-
tiarum : unde postea faciliua in mundani honoria ambitionem, ae
demum in auperbiæ barathrum deturbari queant.

Atque ita tcea aunt pnDclpui tentationum gradua, in divittia, Iuh

NOTES. 401

noribus, et siiperbia Aindati: ex qoibus in alia vidoruin genera
omnia præceps fit decursus.

Similiter, ex opposito, considerandus est summus optimusque
Doster Dux et Imperator Christus.

Punctum primum erit, conspicari Ghristum, in amæno.campo
juxta Hierosolymam, humili quidem constitutum loco, sed valde
øpeciosum formå et aspectu summe amabilem.

Secundum autem est, speculari quo pacto ipse mundi Dominus
universi electos Apostoloe, Discipulos, et ministroe alios per orbem
mittat, qui omni hominum generi, statui, et conditioni doctrinam
sacram ae salutiferam impartiant.

Tertium, auscultare concionem Christi exhortatoriam, ad servos
et amicos suos omnes in opus tale destinatos, qua eis præcipit, ut
juvare studiant quemlibet, ae primo inducendum curent ad spirit-
ualem affectum paupertatis : et insuper (si divini obsequii ratio et
electio cælestis eo ferat) ad sectandam actu ipso veram pauperta-
tem; deinde ut ad opprobrii contemptusque desiderium alliciant,
unde humilitatis virtus enascitur.

Et ita tres consurgunt perfectåonis gradus, TideKcet paupertas,
abjectio sui, atque humilitas, quæ ex diametro divitiis, honori, et
superbiæ opponuntur, ae virtutes omnes statmi introdacunt.

Coiloquium postea formandum erit ad Virginem beatam, implo-
randaque est per eam a Filio gratia, ut recipi possim et manere sub
VexiUo ejus : idque primum per spiritualem tantum paupertatem,
aut etiam in rerum expoliatione sitam (siquidem ad eam me vocare
atque admittere dignabitur) : deinde per abjectionem quoque seu
ignominiam, ut ipsum imiter vicinius : deprecando tamen culpam
aliorum, ne contemptus mei tam in alicujus detrimentum quam in
offensam Dei cedat. Terminabiturpiimumhoc Coiloquium ^t Ave
Maria.^Ex6r, SpirU. IL Hebd.

Page 249.

Tertius est Modus humilitatis absolutissimæ ut, priores duos jam
adeptus, etiam si, nuUo superaddito, laus Dei par foret ; ad majo-
rem tamen imitationem Christi eligam potius (cum eo paupere,
spreto, et illuso) pauperiem, tsontemptum, et insipientiæ titulum
amplecti, quam opes, honores, et sapientiæ æstimationem.

Porro, ad gradum hune humilitatis attingendum, magnum afferet
compendium, triplicis Colloquii præcedentis de Vexillis usus, per
quod suppliciter poscamus (si divinæ placeat Benignitati) ad talem
perduci Electionem, sive major sive æqualis obsequii mei erga Deum
et gloriø divinæ proventus subsit. — Exer. Spirit. IL Hebd.

402 M0TB8.

Page 261.

Seemidiim, ez eompofitioiie loci, congiderando dictam iter, nrnpe-
mm aat lene, breve aat loagam, cam ceteris qaa ineaie poterant
qicnmrtantiw : deincepe coiif(Ncando locum Cena, amplum tcI
aaguctam, Tilem Tel ornatom, et coniiiiiiliir — Exer. Spirit. III.
Hebd.

Page2S&.

Qainta, quod ezpedit inter comedendam imaginari, quan Tide-
amue Jesum Chrutum Dominain noetnim Tcscentem cam sub Di»-
cipalis, obeenrando qaem teneat edendi, bibendi, respiciendi, et lo-
qaendi modam, cumqae ad imitandam nobis proponendo. Uiave-
niet enim, ut, occapato magis intellectu circa meditationem talem
quam circa corporalem cibum, discamus facilius victum moderan.
^Exer. SpirU. III. Hebd.

Page 252.

Satcipe, Dominei aniveiBam meam Ubertatem. Accipe memoriam,
intellectam, atque volantatem omnem. daidquid habeo, vel poaai-
deo, mihi largitai es : id tibi totum restitao, ae tus prorsos voluntati
trado gubemandam. Amorem tai solam cam gratia taa mihi dones,
et dives sum satis, nec aliud quidquam altra posco. — Exer. Spirit.
IV. Hebd.

Page2S3.

Tertins hic orandi Modus in eo consistit, ut inter singulas respe-
ra^ndi vices, singula Dominics alteriusre Orationis verba tranmit-
tamus, ezpensa interim vel significatione prolat« vocis, vel persona
ad quam oratio spectat dignitate, vel mea ipsius viiitate, vel utrius-
que postremo differentia. Eodem procedendum modo in verbis re-
liquiB. Addenda quoque orationes supra memorata, Ave, Credo^
etc. Requlæ Duæ huc spbctantcs.

Prior, ut, finita juxta hunc orandi Modum Precatione Dominica,
sumatur aliis diebus vel boris Angelica Salutatio, simili respira-
tionam intervallo tractanda: cum aliis orationibus usitato more
recitandis.

Posterior, ut qui hunc orandi Modum ezercere cupit diutius, ut
eum applicet precationes omnes supradictas aut earum partes, et
paria anhelituum ae vocum interstitia observet^^^iri/. Exer,
Modi Tres Orandi.

\

NOTES. 403

Pagea 257—960.

REGULJE ALianOT.

Prima, sublato proprio omni judicio, tenendufl est semper paratus
promptasque animusad obediendum veræ Christi Sponsæac sanct«
Matri nostræ, quæ est orthodoxa, catholica, et hierarchica Ecclesia.

Secunda, laudare convenit solitam fieri Sacerdoti Confessionem
peccatorum, et Eucharistis sacræ sumptionem annuam ut mini-
mum : cum sit laudabilius, octavo quoque die, aut semel saltem in
mense quolibet, servatis interim conditionibus debitis, Sacramentum
ipsum suscipere.

Tertia, commendare Christi fidelibus, ut firequenter ae devote
Missæ Sacrum seu Sacrificium audiant. Item cantus ecclesiasti-
008, psalmos, et prolixas preces, in templia vel eztra templa reci-
tandas : tempora etiam probare, detenninata officiis Divinis et pre-
cationibus quibuscumque, ut sunt quas vocamus Horas canonicas.

duarta, laudare plurimum Religionum Status, atque cælibatum
seu virginitatem matrimonio præferre.

Ciuinta, comprobare vota Religiosorum de servanda castitate,
paupertate, obedientiaque perpetua, cum aliis perfectionis et super-
erogationis operibus. Ubi obiter notandum est, quod cum voti
ratio ad ea pertineat quæ ad perfectionem ducunt vits Christians,
de aliis qus ab ipsa perfectione potius avertunt, ut de negotiatione
vel matrimonio, votum numquam emittendum sit.

Sezta, laudare prsterea Reliquias, venerationem et invocationem
Sanctorum: item stationes peregrinationesque pias, indulgentias,
jubilsa, candeias in templis accendi solitas, et reliqua hujusmodi
pietatis ae devotionis nostrs adminicula.

Septima, eztoUere abstinentis ae jejuniorum usum, ut quadra-
gesims quatuor temporum, vigiliarum sezts feris, sabbati, alio-
rumque pro devotione susceptorum: item spontaneas afflictiones
sui, quas pænitentias dicimus, non internas solum, sed etiam ex-
ternas.

Octava, laudare insuper templorum . exstructiones atque oma-
menta : nec non imagines, tamquam propter id quod reprssentant,
jure optimo venerand as.

Nona, confirmare mazime omnia Ecclesis prscepta, nec impug-
nare uUo modo : sed contra impugnantes, qussitis undique rationi-
bus, prompte defendere.

Decima, Patrum etiam seu Superiorom decreta, mandata, tra-
diUones, ritus, et mores studiose probare. Licet autem non repen-

404 NOTES.

•tnr ubiqiie ea qua deberet etæ moram integrittui, ti qnk tamen
▼el in pablica concione vel in populari commercio ipeis obloquitnr,
generat podus damna et tcandala, qaam aliquid afferat remedii
aat ntilitatis : cum nihil aliad sequatur, nisi exaøperatio et obstree-
tatto popali advenus Principes ae Paøtoree suos. Temperandum
eet igitur ab isto invectivamm genere. Vemmtamen, eicut damno-
mm eet, Primates ipsos absentes apud populom aliatrare atque
proseindere ; ita mrsus privatim admonere eos qui, si velint, mederi

bnic malo possunt, opens pretiam yidetnr fore

Decima tertia, deniqne, at ipsi Ecclesis Catholics omnino una-
nimes confonnesqae simas, si quid, quod oealis nostris apparet al-
bom, nigrom illa esse definierit, debemus itidem, qaod nigram sTt,
pronantiare. Indabitate namqae credendum est, eamdem esse
Domini noetri Jesu Chiisti et Ecclesis orthodozs Sponsæ ejus
■piritam, per qaem gubemamar ae dirigimur ad salutem; neque
aHam esse Deum, qai oUm tradidit Decalogi præcepta, et qui nanc
temporis Ecclesiam hierachicam instruit atqae regit. — Exer. Spirit.
JUg, Alignoi,

NOTES TO CHAPTER II.

Pages 273—300.

Passages to which a reference is made, or which are cited or
abridged .from the Epistola B. P. Nostri Ignatii de Virtate Obe-
dientiæ.

lONATIUS LOYOLA,

Fratribos Societatis Jesa, qui sant in Lusitania, Gratiam, et
Amorem Christi Domini Sempiternum.

Ab aliis religiosis ordinibus facilius patiamur saperari nos jejuniis,
vigiliis, et cstera Tictas cultuque asperitate, quam sno quisque ritu,
ae disciplina sancte suscipiunt; vera quidcm ae perfecta Obedi-
entia, abdicationeque voluntatis atque judicii, maxime yeHm, Fra-
tres Carisnmi, esse conspicuos quicumque in hac Societate Deo
Domino noetro deserviunt; ejusdemque Societatis veram germa-
namqUe sobolem hac quasi nota distingui, qui nunquam intueantur
personam ipsam cui obediunt, sed in ea Christum Dominum, cujus
causa obediunt. Si quidem Superiori, nec si prudentia, bonitate,
ceterisTe qoiboslibet Dinrinis doniø omatus, instraetusque sit, prop-

NOTES. 405

terea obtemperondum eet ; sed ob id solom, qaod riees gerat Dei
ejusdemque auctoritate fangatur, qui dicit. " dm voi aadit, me
audit ; et qui voø spemit, me spemit:" nec contra, sive consilio aut
prudentia minus valeat, quidquam idcirco de Obedientia remitten-
dum, quatenus ille Superior est; quando illiua peisonam refert,
CUJU8 sapientia falli non potest : supplebitque ipse, quid quidminis-
tro defiierit, sive probitate, aliisque omamentis careat. Siquidem
disertis verbis Christus Dominus cum dixisset : " super Catiiedram
Moysi sederunt Scribs, et Pharisæi;" protinus addidit, ''omnia
ergo quæcumque dixerint vobis, servate et fkcite ; secundum vero
opera feprum nolite facere."

Jam vero iilud etiam vobis clare compeitum esse, ae in animis
Testris penitus insidere vehementer cupio, infimam et valde impep-
fectam esse illam Obedientiæ formam quæ mandata duntazat opere
exsequitur; nec virtutis nomine dignam, nisi ad alterum gradum
ascendat, qui voluntatem Superioris suam efficit, et cum ea ita
concordet, ut non solum in effectu executio appareat, verum etiam
in affectu consentio ; sicque idem velit uterque, idem nolit. Atque
propterea in Sacris Litteris legimus, " Melior est Obedientia, quam
victim«;" si quidem (ut S. Gregorius docet) " per victimas aliena
caro, per Obedientiam vero voluntas propria mactatur ;" quæ qui-
dem pars animi, quoniam est adeo præstans, sic fit, ut ejus oblatio
Domino ae Creatori nostro per Obedientiam facta magni sit æsti*
manda

duocirca voluntates vestras, Fratres Carissimi, quoad ejus fieri
omnino deponite : libertatem Conditori vestro quam vobb ipsemet
elargitus est, in ejus ministris libere tradite, ae dicate. Nolite exi-
guum vestri liberi arbitrii fiructum putare quod lieeat vobis illud, a
quo id aeeepistis, eidem per Obedientiam plene reddere. Q,uod cum
faeitis, non modo non perditis ipsum, verum ipsum augetis atque
perficitis ; quippe qui vestras omnes voluntates certisnma rectitndi-
nb regula moderamini voluntate Divina, quam videlieet interpre-
tatur is, qui vobis Dei nomine præsidet.

Itaque ditigenter illud etiam cavendum est, ne Superioris uUo
onquam tempore voluntatem (quam ducere pro Divina debetis) ad
vestram detorquere nitamihi: id enim esset non vestram Divina
conformare, sed Divinam vestræ voluntatis norma regere velle,
ejusdem Divina Sapientia ordinem invertentes. Sane quam mag*
nus est error, et quidem eorum quos amor sui obeacavit, obedienteø
existimare sese, cum Superiorem ad id quod ipsimet volunt aliqua
ratione pertraxerint

Q,ui vero se totom penitus immolaie vult Deo prater voluntatemi

406 KOTES.

intelligeiitiam quoque (qui tertiat et tamnnii eft grradus Obedien-
tis) offerat neeesw eit, at non toliim idem velH, sed etiam ut idem
■entiat quod Superior, ejutque jadicio mibjiciat suam, quoad potest
deTota voluntas intelligentiam inflectere. das yib animi tametsi
non ea qaa volantaa pollet, libertate pnedita eat ; atque ipaa natura
fertnr ejua aifensiu in id, quod libiTeri speeiem præbet: tamen
maltii in rebni, in quibm videlicet cognit« reritatis evidentia vim
illi non infert, potett volantatii pondere in hane potius, quam in
illam partern inclinari. dna res cum incidant, debet quisquig Obe-
dientiam pirofitetar, inelinare sese in sententiam Soperioris. Etenim
cum Obedientia sit qaoddam holocaustam, quo totus homo sine ulia
prorsus immunitione Conditori suo, ae Domino per manus ministro-
mm in caritatis igne immolatur; cumque sit eadem renunciatio
quødam integra, per quam omni sno juze sponte decedit religiosus,
ut Divins Providentis Superioris duetu gubemandum, ae possiden-
dum ultro sese addicat, ae mancipet : negari non potest, quin Obe-
dientia comprehendat, non solum ezecutionem, ut imperatur quis
faciat, et voluntatem, ut libenter faciat; sed etiam judicium, ut
quøcumque Superior mandat ae sentit, eadem inferiori et recta, et
vera esse Tideantur, quatenus, ut dizi, vi sua potest voluntas intcl>
ligentiam flectere

Nam ut in corporibus globisque cælestibus, alius alium afficiat
moveatque, requiritur, ut certa quadam convenientia et ordine in-
férior orbis superiori subjiciatur : sic in hominibus, cum alter alte-
rius auGtoritate movetur, quod per Obedientiam fit, oportet ut is,
qui ab alterius nutu pendet, subserviat, et obsecundet ; ut virtus ab
imperante ad eum derivetur, et influat. Hac autem obtemperandi
obsecundandique ratio constare non potest, nisi voluntas ae judi-
cium inferioris cum Superioris voluntate ae judicio congruat

Preterea, nisi hæc Obedientia jadicii ezistat, fieri non potest, ut
vel consensus voluntatis, vel executio talis sit, qaalem esse oportet:
natura enim ita comparatum est, ut animi nostri vires, quæ appe-
titivæ dicuntur, sequantur apprehensivas ; et nisi adhibita vi, volun-
tas, judicio repugnante, diu obtemperare non poterit. Ciaod si forte
qub aliquo temporis spatio obediat (»er commanem illam apprehen-
sionem, qua censetur, perperam etiam præcipienti parendum esse ;
certe id stabile, ae fizum esse non potest : atqua ita perseverantia
deficit, vel saltem Obedientiæ perfectio, quæ in prompte et alacriter
obediendo consistit ; non enim ibi potest esse alacritas, sententia-
rumque dissensio. Perit etiam ezsequendi studium, et celeritas,
cum ambitur, expediat nec ne, fkcere quod jubemur : perit celebria
illa Obedientiæ cæeæ simplicitas, cum apud nos ipsos in quæstionem

NOTES. 407

Tocamaft, recte ne præeipiatur, an secus : atque etiam fbrtasse dam-
naixHis Superiorem, qaod ea mandet, quæ nobk non ita jucunda
8unt : pcrit humilttas, quoniam etsi ex altera parte paremus, ex al-
tera tamen nosmetipsos Superiori præferimas : perit in rebus arduis
fbrtitudo; perit denique (ut summatim complectar) virtutis hujuB
vis omnis ae dignitas. Succedunt autem in eorum locum dolor,
molestia, tarditas, lassitudo, obmurmurationes, excusationes, aliaque
vitia non sane levia, quibus Obedientiæ pretium, ae meritum pror-
sus extinguitur

Quam vero sit eadem ipsa perfecta, grataque Domino, inde pri-
mum ostenditur, quod per eam præstantissima pars hominis ae pre-
tiosissima Domino consecratur. Deinde quod Obediens ita fit holo-
caustum vivum, gratumque Majestati Divinæ, cum nihii suimet
omnino retineat : postremo quod magna est hujus certaminis diffi-
cultas ; frangit enim sese Dei causa Obediens ipsemet, resistitque
naturali propension!, quæ omnibus hominibus incita est ad suam
complectendam sequendamque sententiam. Ex his igitur rebus
efHcitur, ut Obedientia, tametsi proprie voluntatem perficere videa-
tur, quippe quam reddit ad nutum Superioris promptam ae paratam ;
nihilominus ad intelligentiam quoque ipsam, ut diximus, pertinere
debeat, eamque inducere ad sentiendum id ipsum, quod sentit Su-
perior : sic enim fiet, ut omitibus connixi yiribus et voluntatis, et
intelligentiæ, ad executionem celerem atque integram veniamus.

Primum illud est, ut quemadmodum initio dixi, non intueamini in
persona Superioris hominem obnoxium erroribus, atque miseriis;
sed Christum ipsum, qui est sapientia summa, bonitas immensa,
caritas infinita; qui nec decipi potest, uec vos vult ipse decipere;
et quoniam conscii vobismet estis, vos Dei amore jugum obedientiæ
subiisse, ut in Superioris voluntate sequendo, voluntatem Divinam
certius sequeremini ; nolite dubitare, quin purgat fidelissima Domini
caritas, eorum ministerio, quos vobis præfecit, vos deinceps guber-
nore, et rectis itineribus ducere. Itaque Superioris vocem, ae jussa,
non secus ae Christi vocem, excipite

Pofltrema subjiciendi judicii ratio est cum facilior, tutiorque, tum
etiam apud sanctos patres in more posita, ut statuatis vobiscum
ipsi, quidquid Superior præcipit, ipsius Dei præceptum esse, et volun-
tatem, atque ut ad credenda, quæ Catholica fides proponit, toto
animo assensuque vestro statim incuipbitis; sic ad ea facienda,
quæcumque Superior dixerit, cæco quodam impetu voluntatis pa-
rendi cupidæ, sine ulla prorsus disquisitione feramini. Sit*, egisse
credendus est Abraham, filium Isaac immolare jussus; sic Novi
Testamenti tempore aliquis e sanctis patribus iis, quos commemorat

408 KOTES.

CaMianiu, ut JohannM Ablias, qoi, qaod erat ei impentBm, non
fepatalMt utilene ctiet, an inatile } ut cwn aiidam fignum tanto
ae tam diaturno labore per annum irrigayit ; nec atram fieii poa-
■it, nee^ne; at cam conatai eet tam ex animo ingens saxam solos
demoveie looo, qaod ne malti qaidem simai homines impellere po-
fnwsent Qaod obedientiø genas ipsis interdam miraculis divini-
tofl compfobatam Tidemus. Nam (at aHoe taceam, qaos ipsi non
ignoratk.) Maaros sancti Benedictt discipalas, mandato Superiork
lacam ingressas, nec menus est : alias qaidam a Saperiore jossoa,
lemiam ad se dacere, illam cæpit, atqae peidaxit Est igitar hse
ratio sabjteiendi proprii jadidi, ae sine aUa qaestione sanciendi et
collaudandi apad se qaodcomqae Saperior jasserit, non solmn
sanetis vins usitata, sed etiam perléctæ obedienti« stadiosis imi-
tanda onmibos in rebas qua cam peccato manifesto oonjunctø non
■ont .....

Rom«. VII. Kalend. Aprilis, milJessimo qaingentessimo qoinqaa-
gesimo tertio.

Loyola had addiessed similar adviees to indiriduab of the So-
eietj as oocasion required ; bat it seems that this Letter to the Por-
taguese brethren was composed with more deUberate eare than had
been bestowed upon any of those previous epistles. OaLAKDiNua
is warranted in expressing himself conceming it as he does. Ao-
ctistomed as was the Gkneral to leare the administration of Hooses
to the Rectors and Provincials, and abstaining as he did (tom in-
terference in ordinaij instances, he knew how to step forward, on
those rare occasions when the welfare or veiy existence of the
Order was in qaestion. Sach an instance was that which drew
ftom him the Epistle on Obedience. Orlandinus (Lib. XIII. an.
1553) says:--

Ad omnes vero communiter socios Epistola de Obedientiå, qaæ
extat, misit : qua disputatione non facUé absoluttus in eo genere
qoidquam subtifiusTe reperias : quæ deinde per cæteras Societatis
missa proTincias vehementer abique ad parendnm alacritatem in-
cendit.

As a matter of eourse the aathorship of this epistle, as well as
that of the Spiritual Exercises, has been cailed in question by the
adTenaries of the Society. It does not however appear that these
allegatibns have rested upon any solid ground. There seems to
have been a reluctance to beliéve that Loyola had mind enough to
produce any of the writings that have been attributed to fan pen.

NOTES* 409

NOTES TO CHAPTER III,

THB CONSTITUTIONS.

So long as it was possible to do so, the Society held its Consti-
TUTiONs in the dark ; when at length this could not be done, and
when, by various means, almost the entire code had found its way
to the public, an authorized edition waa published. This appeared
at Prague, in 1757. The Constitutions had indeed heen printed
frequently ; but the copies had been reserred to the use of the Su-
periors and Provincials. During this period of secrecy many alter-
ations had been effected in the tezt ; these underwent a careful
scrutiny in preparation for the Prague edition, which was thence-
forward to be considered as unalt-erable.

The world had abready become famiiiar with a preliminary traet,
entitied— -Primum ae Oenerale Examen iis omnibus qui in Socie-
tatem Jesu admitti petunt proponendum ; — and which, as this title
indicates, has always been piit into the hånd of those who apply
to be admitted into the Society. Under eight heads, a sort of out-
line of the institute is conveyed, and those points are insisted upon,
which a candidate for admission would do well maturely to con-
sider. Upon these several points each candidate is strictly ex-
amined, certain rare cases excepted, as when his qualifications,
disposition, and accomplbhments have already become thoroughly
known to the Superiors. The main intention of the Society is
thus declared : —

Finis hujus Societatis est, non solum saluti, et perfectioni pro-
priarum animarum cum divina gratia vacare, sed cum eadem im-
pense in salutem, et perfectionem proximomm incumbere.

It then sets forth the principal means employed for securing its
great end and purpose : —

Ad hunc finem melius consequendum, tria Vota in ea, Obedi-
entiæ, Paupertatis, et Castitatis emittuntur; sic Paupertatem ac-
cipiendo, ut nec velit, nec possit reditus uUos ad sueun sustentatio-
nem, nec ad quidvis aliud habere. Quod non tantum in particulari
de unoquoque, sed etiam de Ecclesiis, et Domibus Societatis Pro-
fessæ est intelligendum. Nec etiam (quamvis aliis sit licitum) pro
Missarum Sacrificiis, vel Prædicationibus, vel Lectionibus, vel
uHius Sacramenti administratione, vel quovis alio pio Officio ez
iis, quæ juxta suum Institutum Societas potest exercere, stipendium
ullum vel eleemosynam, quæ ad compensationem hujusmodi minis-
teriorum dari solent, ab alio quam a Deo (ob cujus obsequium om-
nia pure facere debent) possunt admittere.

18

410 NOTES.

One of the most characteiutic of the Jesuit principles is eonveyed
in the foUowing passage (it is alladed to at page 314) : —

Ceteram ratio Yivendi in ezterioribns, jastas ob causas, majus
Dei obsequium semper intuendo, communb est : nec uUas ordina-
lias pænitentias, vel corporis afflictiones, ex obligatione subeundas
håbet ; sed illas asstimere quivis potent, qu» ribi yidebuntur, cum
approbatione Superioris ad majorem sui spiritus profectum conve-
nire, et quas propter eundem finem Superiores eis poterunt im-
ponere.

Candidates for admission are reqaired to declare whether tbey be
willing to renounce and alienate their property, and to bestow it
otherwise than they might be disposed to do: that \a to say, not
npon their relatives; also whether they be willing to cut them-
selves off from all ties of kindred ; or at least to submit, in this re-
spect, to the directions of their Superior. The foUowing passage is
referred to at page 306 : —

Cum autem communicatio, quæ cum amicis, et sanguine junctis,
verbo aut scripto fit, potius ad quietis perturbationem, quam ad
eonim, qui spiritus vacant, profectum, præsertim in initiis, facere
soleat : interrogentur, num contenti sint cum hujusmodi non com-
municare, nec litteras accipere, nec scribere, nisi aliqua occasione,
Superiori aliter videretur. Et quamdiu Domi fuerint, num contenti
sint, ut videantur litteræ omnes, et qui ipsis scribentur et quas ipsi
aliis scribent ; ei, cui hujusmodi munus commissum est, cura relicta,
ut eas det, vel non det, quemadmodum in Domino nostro magis ex-
pedire judicabit.

Unusquisque eorum qui Societatem ingrediuntur, consilium illud
Christi sequendo : " Qui dimiserit Patrum,'' &c. existimet sibi
patrem, matrem, fratres, et sorores, et quidquid in mundo habebat,
relinquendum ; imo sibi dictum existimet verbum lUud : " Qui non
odit patrem, et matrem, insupur et animam suam, non protest meus
esse discipulus."

Et ita curandum ei est, ut omnem camis efTectum erga sanguine
junctos exuat, ae illum in spiritualem convertat : eosque diligat eo
solum amore, quem ordinata charitas exigit, ut qui mundo ae pro-
prio amori mortuus, Christo Domino Nostro soli vivit, eumque loco
parentum, fratrum, et rerum omnium håbet.

The candidate is asked whether he can submit himself to that
system of delation which prevails within the Society ; as well as
whether he can take his part in carrying it forward toward others.

Enactments involving the most frightful consequences may easily
be condensed within the compassofa brief paragraph ; and this

j<roTES. 411

may be done in terms apparently bo guUelesø, and bo weil inten-
tioned, as to screen the greatest enormities from the observation of
even an intelligent reader. It is in such a style of innocence and
unconsciousness that one of the most poisonous ingredients of the
Jesuit system is dropped into the cup. How reasonable a thing
does it seem to ask one who wishes to dedicate himself to a spirit-
ual function, whether he is williog that his faults, by whomsoever
noted, and apart from the acknowledgment he may make of them
to hb Confessor, should be reported to his superiors 1 And if will-
ing thns, for his personal benefit, to stand open to the observation
and report of others, he cannot think it too much to ask of him a
reciprocity of faithful love ; or in plain terms, that he will, in his
turn, render his aid in promoting the welfare of all around him.
It is thus quietly that the deep fbundations are laid upon which a
superstructure of universal treachery is to be reared : —

Ad majorem in spiritu profectum et præcipue ad majorem submis-
sionem et humilitatem propriam, interrogetur, an contentus sit fu-
turus, ut omnes errores, et defectus ipsius, et res quæcumque quæ
notatæ in eo et observatæ fuerint, Superioribus, per quemvis, qui
extra Confessionem eas acceperit, manifestentur.

Num etiam boni sit consulturus (quod et ipse, et quivis alius fa-
cere debet) ab aliis corrigi, et ad aliorum correctionem j uvare : ae
num manifestare sese invicem sint parati, debito cum amore etchar-
itate, ad majorem spiritus profectum ; præsertim ubi a Superiore,
qui illorum curam gerit, fuerit ita præscriptum aut interrogatum,
ad majorem Dei gloriam.

Page 308.

Of the siz means of probation through which the candidate is re-
quired to pass, the firstbeing a course of the Spiritual Exercises, the
second is — Servire in uno vel pluribus Xenodochus per inensem
ahura, ibidem cibum capiendo et dormiendo ; vel per aliquam vel
plures horas quotidie, pro temporum, locorum, et personarum ra-
tione auxilium, et ministerium omnibus ægris et sanis, prout in-
junctum eis fuerit, impendendo : ut magis se demittant et humilient
ae eo veluti argumento demonstrent se prorsus ab hoc sæculo ejus-
que pompis ae vanitate recedere ; ut omnino suo Creatori et Dom-
ino pro ipeorum salute cmcifixo serviant.

Tertium est, peregrinari mensem alium sine pecuuia : imo suis
temporibus ostiatim pro Christi amore mendicare; ut possint ad
incommoditatem comedendi et dormiendi assuefieri ^ atque adeo ut,

412 NOTES.

omni tpe Ula abjecta, quam in pecuniis et rebus aliu creatis possint
constitaere, integre, vera cam fide et ardenti amore, eam in sno
Creatote et Domino constituant : vel utramqae mensem ministerio
hoepitalium, Tel alicujus eorum aut etiam utramqae peregrinationi,
proat Superiori visum farit, impendent.

A " menJicity ticket," that is to say, a testimonial from " aliquis
fide dignus" must he brought in by the novice on his return to the
House, tothis purport: — "I, A. B., certify that the bearer, C. D.,
has been begging in my neighborhood [so many days], in a pious
and edifying manner." It is thus that a false system is built up
with (hisities, from the foundation to the summit : —

Cam in tertio, peregrinationis, ab ultimo loco, ad quem pervenit
Tel non procul ab eo, testimonium ab aliquibus, vel uno certé fide
digno secum ferat; quod suam devotionem secutus, sine uUa cuju»-
quam querela eo pervenit.

Passages referred to in Page 310.

. . . per triduum suis constitutis temporibus, vestigia sequendo
primoram, de quibus mentionem fecimus, ostiatim pro Christi Dom-
ini nostri amore mendicare debent : ut contra quam est communis
hominum sensus, ad Divinum obsequium et laudem magis se possint
submittere : magisque in spiritu proficere ad gloriam Divinæ Ma-
jestatis. Ut etiam magis sint dispositi ad ipsum faciendum, quan-
do illis injunctum fuerit, vel conveniens aut necessarium erit, dum
per varias mundi partes, juxta quod eispræscriptum vel constitutum
per summum Christi Vicarium, vel ejus loco per Superiorem Socie-
tatis fuerit, discurrent. Q,uandoquidem exigit Nostræ Professiotiis
ratio, ut parati, et in procinctu simus, ad ea omnia quæ quovis tem-
pore in Domino nobis injuncta fuerint nec petcndo. nec expectan-
do præmium ullum in præsenti hac et labili vita ; sed eam quæ un-
decumque ætema est, ex summa Dei misericordia semper sperando.

Etadparticularia quædam descendendo. in probationibus humilita-
tis et abnegationis sui.et in exercendis OHiciis abjectis et humilibus
(cujusmodi sunt in culina servire, domilm everrere, et reliqua om-
nia servitia obire) promptius ea suscipi convenit, a quibus sensus
magis abhorrebit : si quidem injunctum fuerit, ut in eis se «xerce-
ant.

Page 310.

Ideo melius est ut Coquua non roget sibi inservientem, ut hoc aut
illud faciat, sed cum modestia jubeat, vel dicat. Hoc fac. vel I illud
Si enim rogat, potius ut homo hominem alloqui videbitur . ut Oo-

NOTES. 413

quum laicmn rogare Sacerdotem, ut ollas abstergat, vel res hajus-
modi faciat, nec decens, nec justum videretur. Sed si jubeat, vel
dicat, Fac hoc, vel illud ; signiiicabit magis, quod ut Christus horn-
ini loquatur, quandoquidem ipsius loco jiibet : atque ita qui obedit,
considerare ae perpendere vocem a Coquo vel alio, qui sit ei Supe-
rior, egressam debet, ut si a Christo Domino Nostro egréderetur, ut
onmino placere Divinæ Majestati possit

Page 312.

.... ex parte rerum animi, quando qui ad Probationem admis-
pus fuit, se componere ad vitam sub Obedientia et juzta modum
procedendi Societatis ducendam non possit; quod nequeat, vel
nolit proprium suum sensum, aut judicium ihfiringere ; vel propter
alia impedimenta, quæ a natura, vel a consuetudine promanarent.
— ConstUutioneSf Pars II. cap. ii.

Page 303.

The one lesson that is reiterated in varied terms, as oflen as pos-
sible, is that which teaches unreasoning submission to the com-
mands of a Superior. Ås thus ; —

Expedit in primis ad profectum, et valde neccessarium est, ut
omnes perfectæ Obedientiæ se dedant, Superiorem (quicumque ille
sit) loco Christi Domini nostri agnoscentes, et intern a reverentia et
amore eum prosequentes, nec solum in exsecutione ezterna eorum
que injungit, integre, prompte, fortiter, et cum humilitate debita,
sine excusationibus, et obmurmurationibus obediant, licet difficiUa,
et secundum sensualitatem repugnantia jubeat ; verum etiam con-
entur interius resignationem, et veram abnegatiohem propriæ vol-
untatis et judicii habere, voluntatem ae judicium suum cum eo, quod
Superior vult et sentit, in omnibus rebus (ubi peccatum non cerne-
retur) omnino conformantes, proposita sibi voluntate, ae judicio Su-
perioris, pro regula suæ voluntatis et judicii, quo exactius confbr-
mentur priiuæ ae summæ regulæ omnis bonæ voluntatis et judicii,
quæ est æterna bonitas et sapientia — ConstU. Pars. III. cap. i.

Again to the same purpoit further on : — Q,uam quidem omnes plu-
rimum observare et in ea excellere studiant ; nec solum in rebus ob-
ligatoriis, sed etiam in aliis; licet nihil aliud quam signum volunta-
tis Supexioris, sine ullo expresso precepto, videretur. Yersari au-
tem debet ob oculos Deus Creator. ae Dominus Noster, propter quem

honuni obedientia præstatur : — ita ut omnibus rebus, ad

quflis potest cum charitate se 0\>edientia extendere ad ejus vocem,

414 NOTES.

periode ae si a Christo Domino egrederetor (quandoqiudem ipsiiis
loco ae pro ipøius amore et reyerentiaObedientiain pnestamiis) quam
prDmptiMiml simas ; re qaavii atqae adeo littera a Nobis inchoata,
necdum perfecta, relicta, ad eum scopum vires omnes ae intentio-
nem in Domino convertendo, ut saocta Obedientia tam in executione,
tum in volunlate, tum in intellectu sit in Nobis semper omni ex parte
perfecta ; cam magna ceieritate, spirituali gaudio et perseverentia,
qaidquid Nobis injanctam faerit, obeando : omnia justa esse Nobis
persuadendo omnem sententiam ae judicium Nostram contrariam
ceca quadam Obedentia abnegando ; et id qaidem in omnibus, qaæ
a Superiore disponantur. abi definiri non possit (qaemadmodnm
dictum Cbt) aliquod peccati genus intercedere. Et sibi qutsqae per-
suadeat, quod qui sub Obedientia vivunt, se ferri ae regi Divina
Providentia per Superiores suos sincere debent, perinde ae si cada-
Ter essent, quod quoquoversus ferri, et quacumque ratione tractaii
■e sinit : vel similiter atque senis baculus, qui abicumque, et qua-
cumqae in re velit eo uti, qui eum manu tenet, ei inservit. Sic enim
obediens rem quamcumque, cui eum Superior ad auxilium totios
corporis Religionis velit impender^, eum animi bilaritate debet exse-
qui ; pro certo habens, quod ea ratione potius, quam re alia quavis,
quampræstare possit, propriam voluntatem ae judicium diversum sec-
tando, Divinæ voluntati respondebit. — ConstU. Pars. VI. cap. L ^ 1.

Page 318.

Ego, N., Profbssionem facio, et promitto Omnipotenti Deo, coram
ejus Virgine Matre, et universa cælesti curia, ae omnibus circam-
stantibus ; et tibi Patri Reverendo N. Præposito Generali Societatis
Jesu, locum Dei tenenti, et successoribus tuis; (vel tibi Reverendo
Patri N. Vice Præpositi Generalis Societatis Jesu, et successoram
ejus, locum Dei tenenti;) perpetuam Paupertatem, Gastitatem, et
Obedientiam, et secundum eam, peculiarem curam circa pueromm
eruditionem, juxta formam vivendi, in Litteris Apostolicis Societatis
Jesu, et in ejus Constitutionibus contentam.

Page 323.

Cam exoptet Societas universas Constitutiones, Declarationes, ae
vivendi ordinem, omnino juxta Nostrum institutum, nihil uUa in re
declinando, observari ; optet etiam nibilominus suos omnes securos
esse, vel certe adjuvari, ne in laqueum illius peccati quod ex vi Con-
stitutionum hujusmodi, aut Ordinationum proveniat, incidant, visum
est Nobis in Domino, excepto expreEsso Voto, quo Societas Summo

NOTES. 415

Pontifici pro tempore ezistenti tenetur, ae tribas aliifl essentiafibos
Paupertatis, Castitatis; et Obedientæ nuUas Constitutiones, Decla-
rationes, vel ordinem ullam vivendi, posse obligationem ad peccatum
mortale vel veniale inducere ; nisi Superior ea in Nomine Domini
Nostri Jesu Christi, vel in virtute Obedientiæ juberet ; quod in rebus,
vel personis illis in quibus judicabitur, quod ad particulare uniuscu-
jusque, Vel ad universale bonum multum conveniet, fieri poterit:
et loco timoris ofiensæ succedat amor desiderium omnis perfectionis
et ut major gloria et laus Christi Creatoris ae Domini Nostri eonse-
quantur. — Constit. Pars. VI. cap. v.

Pagts 337, 338.

Ex Professis qui Congregationi intererunt, unusquisque suffragi-
um unicum, solus Generalis duo habebit. Sed si numerus par es-
set, Provincialis reliquis præferetur ; et si mter ipsos Provinciales es-
set paritas, pars illa, in quam Præpositus Generalis, vel (si is e vivis
ezcessisset) ipsius Yicarius inclinabit, esset præferenda. Ut enim
illis magis est necessarium Divinæ gratiæ auxilium, propter munus
quod gerunt ; ita sperandum est D£UM ae Dominum nostrum uber-
ius id illis, ut sentiant et dicant, quæ ad ipsius gloriam faciant, lar-
giturum

Quando non ad e^ectionem Generalis eongregatur Soeietas, in aliis
eventibus Præpositus Generalis eam convoeabit ; præterquam in il-
lis, qui in Nona Parte exprimentur : et non eongregabit frequenter
Societatem, ut dictum est, nisi rerum agendarum necessitas urgeret.
Sed cum generalis Gongregatio ad electionem Præpositi convocata,
eum jam elegerit, deinde de rebus aliis gravioribus, quam ut a Oen-
erali et iis qui cum ipso agunt, decidi debeant, tractari poterit. —
CmstU. Pars VIII. cap. iv. § 2.

Page 334.

duia Soeietas quæ mediis humanis instituta non est, per ea nee
conservari, nee augeri potest ; sed per gratiam Omnipotentis Dei ae
Domini Nostri Jesu Christi, in eo solo spem constitui oportet, quod
conservaturus sit et promoturus hoc opus, quod ad obsequium et
laudem suam, et auxilium animarum inchoare dignatus est. Et
juxta spem hane, primum medium et maxime consentaneum ora-
tionum et saeriiiciorum erit ; quæ hac eum intentione santa offerri,
et singulis hebdomalis, mensibus et annis, in omnibus locis ubi So-
eietas residet, eerta ordinatione instituti debent.

Ad conservationem et inerementum non solum eorporis, id est,

416 H0TE8.

•omm qam eztema flant, led etiam spiritiu Societatu, atque ad aa«
awntioiiea finis quem nbi ptmåffi anxilii animanun, ad ultimum
et aupefnatiiialem ■awn finem conaequenduin, media illa qas cam
Dbo uutrameDtam conjanguiit ae disponant, ut a Divina mana
reele gnbemetiir, efficadora øont, quam qaæ illud disponant crga
homiiif Hnjosmodi e«t probikaa et Tiitue, ao præcipue charitas
et pma intentio Dhini aervitii et famifiaritas cum Dso in spiritual-
iboi devetionM exeicitiis, et xelus nncenii animamm ad glonam
ejoa qin eaa cfeavit ae ledemit, quovia afio emolumento poathabUo.
Videtur itaqne in anivennm cnrandam esse, ut omnes qui se So-
dftati addixenint, in Tirtutum tolidarum ae perfeetarum et spiiit-
aafium studium rerum incumbat; ae in hujnsmodi majui momen-
tum, quam in doetrina Tel aliii donis natundibns et humanis c<m-
■titntum esse dueant lUa enim interiora sunt, ex quibus effica-
ciam ad exteriora permanare ad finem nobb propositum opoTtet —
Cmsta. Pais. X. $ 1.

To tbe Constitutions, throughout. there are attacbed notes, more
or leas, at the foot of abnost eveiy page : these are ealled " Deelar-
ati^ms," and proftssedly they senre to set the text free from any
ambiguitj that might seem to attacfa to it But in faet, the princi-
pal use of this ninning commentaiy is to asaist, raCher than to r&-
move, the intended ambiguity of the text Where, in the body of
the Constitutions, a mie or inj anetion is propounded, and is with-
drawn — Is advaneed and pulled in, the attendant note or " Deelar-
ation" smooths the way for the operation—saying and unsajring
the same thing, in other terms. The notes ha^ing been originally
attached to the Jesuit Code, are held to be of the same authority
as the text Or rather perhaps, those of them which are attributed
to Loyola*s own band: these — prim« Declarationes, qua simul
cum Constitudonibus promulgantur, eamdem, quam iil«, auctorita-
tem babent Et ita in utrarumque observatione, eamdem euram
adhiberi opoitet — ContiU, Pars VI. eap. i.

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ADVICE TO A YOUNG CH R I STI AN, on the Im-
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EXrOSITION OV rSALM CXIX., as Illastrative of th*

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— MEMOIR OF MISS MARY JANE GRAHAM, late of
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WORKS. Coniprishig all ihe abrfve in three vols. 8vo.

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ty

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As a specimen of analogica.1 reasoning, wc suppose it has never been equalled :
and its infiuf^nce, in promoting ministerial efliciency, ean hardly be orer*
rated. Some ministers are in the habit of reading it, earefuUy, once eyery
ye;ir. The Analogy oecnpifs about one half the Toiume; the remainder con-
siats of Diiisertations and Seruions. — N. E. Puritan.

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. THE GREATNKSS OF THE SOUL, AND THE UN-

SPEAKABLBNESS OF THE LOSS THEREOF— NO WAY
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CALVIN— ON SBCRET PROVIDENOE. By Johu Calvin
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CAMERON— THE FARMERES DAUGHTER. By Mra. Ca-
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*'In Richard Ceoil we see a man, combiaing the rich soli of strong natire talent
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CUARK--A WALK ABOUT ZION. Revised and enlarged.
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DAVI DSON— CONNECTION OF 8ACRED AND PROFANE
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over the progress of nations, may be as nntraeeable as his paths in the oeeaa,
jet the effeots are everywhere risible, and manifest the progressiTe luUU-
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•Jes."—- iVo/c<ton< Chwchman,

6

'H

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OAVIO'S PSALMS IN METRE — Largo type, on fioe
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7

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DU NC AN (REV. HENRY)— THE SACRED PHILOSOPHY

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M

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F08XER— ESSAYS ; In a Series of Letters. By John Foster*
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FREE CHURCH P U UP I T— Consisting of Discoursea by
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— , (3HRIST OUR LAW. 12mo. 60 cents

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QOD IN THE SXORM— A NARRATIVE, by the Rev.

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Q R I F F I T H —LIVE WHILE YOU LIVE. By the Rev. Tbpinai
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O

CARTBR'8 PUBLICATIONS.

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— (MISS MARY J.)--MEM01R- OF MISS MARY JANE
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'* This \b one of the great theologie«! wcrkfl of the centnry, nor ha« there been
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" 1t is elear and masterly in its lieTolt^ment of prioeiples. It is bold and
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10

CARTEB'S PUBLI0ATI0N8.

HEXHJS.RINQXON— HI8T0RY OF THB CHUBCH OF
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" This is in erery respeot a work of urmt merit. U contoiiM the hiatorj of one
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as we ean judge, fldelity uf its stat-ements. ICs anthor deserres not les«
oredit for tbe patienee and diligence of bi« researches, than for the iapai^
tiality With whieh be bas eommunicated their results.-'

HENRY— A METHOD FOR PRAYBR, with Scriptnre Bxpres-
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THE COMiMUNICANT'S COMPANIOxN. 18mo. 40 eta.

DIRECTIONS F9R DATLY COMMUNION WITH GOD

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HIUU (GEORGE)— LECTURES ON DIVINITY. By the lata
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** Tbe eandor »nd fairness of this anthor are remarkable. In stating the opin-
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fidenee in the soundnes« of his own. He is as calm and passionless in :what
wonU be controversy in some bands, as his eminent countryman Dr. Campbell.
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these puges, and are ererywhere instructed- His notices, or history of ▼»-
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— (ROWLAND)— THE LIFE OF THB REY. ROWLAND

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"One of the best of men, and the greatest of preaehers.''

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HORNE (BISHOP)— A COMMBNTARY ON THB BOOKOF
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** His style is hicid, and often terse ; his refleetions grow natnrally ont of tha
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as to render this eommentary one of peouliar fitness for family Nadine."

11

OARTBB'SPUBLICATIONS.

HORNE (THOS, H,)— AN INTRODUCTION TO THB CRI-
TICAL 8TUDY AND KNOWLEDGB OV THÉ HOLY SCEIP
TURES. By Thomas Haitwell Horne, B.D., of St. John*8 Col-
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$4. lu 2 vola. full cluth, |4.

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HO US MAN— THB LIFE AND REMAINS OF THB REV.
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HUSS — MEMOIR OF JOHN HUSS, THB REFORMER.—
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JACO BUS— NOTES ON THE GOSPELS: Critical and Ex-
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"We are greatly mtntaken fn onr estlmate of this nevrirork, tf It does not be-
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JAMES— THB ANXIOUS INQUIRER AFTER SALVATION.
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THB TRUE CHRISTIAN. 30 cents.

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12

CARTER'S PtJBLIOATlONS.

JANEWAY— HEAVEN UPON EARTH; or Jesus the best
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^ Thia is the prodnotiou of one of the choiceflt spirits of the sercnteenth ran«
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KENNEDY— PROFESSION IS NOT PRINCIPLB; or the
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LONQ— SIR ROLAND A8HT0N. A Tale of the Times. By
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13

CART.EE*S PUBLICATIONS.

L.OCKN/VOOD— MEMOIR OF JOHN D. LO.CKWOOD. Be
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** A gifted mtnd and caltirated powers, hallowed Mid eontrolled by a sweet aad
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terest We have i«ad it with onmingled jAeasare and profit."— JV. Y. Evcmr
gdist.

LUTHER— A COMMENTARY ON 8T. PAUL'S EPISTLB
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'* This is a reprint of one of the noblest {Hrodoctlons ofihe Reformation. It bears
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M AC K AV— THE WYCKLIFFITES ; or England in the Fif-
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MARXIN— A BRIEF SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF THE
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MARTYN— MEMOIR OF THE REV. HENRY MARTYN,
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MARTYRS AND COVENANTERS OF SCOTLAND.

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*' We do Bot remember that we erer read a little Tolome oontaining so mneh of
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14

I

-i

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MCQ I LVR A Y— PBACB IN BELIEVING. By the Rev. Wal-
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MCCHEYNE— THE LIFE. LETTERS, LECTURBS AND
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M E I K L.E — SOLITUDE SWEETENED ; or, Miscellaneous

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MILLER (t)R. SAMUEL) — MEMOIR OF THE REV,
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(REV. JOHNY— THE DESIGN OF THE CHURCH, as

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MONOD—LUCILLA; or the Readiog of tbe Bible. By Adol
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15

CABTER'S PUBLICATION8.

MI88ION8— THE OEIGIN AND HISTORY OF MJSSIONfk
A Becord of tbe Voyages, Ttavels, Labors, and Successes of
tbe Tarioiu MiMionaries who have been sent forth by Protestant
Bocieties to Evangelize tbe Heathen. Compiled from authentic
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**H\m th« moft •ztensiv« sad eompleCe histoty of-missiotu irhlch bss been pre-
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voald not be resdily fonnd døewhere. For s fftmily 1>ook, one to which tbe
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MORELL— AN HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL VIEW of the
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** We bare seldom nåi aa antbor wbo can make staeb incid convejrance of bis
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JSkUnburgh Pretbyterian Review.

MOFFAX — MI8SIONARY LABORS AND SCENES IN
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MY SCHOOL-BOY DAYS— 18mo. 30 cents.

MY YOUTHFUU COMP^AN IONS—A Sequel to the
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I LIFE. Alone. 18mo. 30 cents.

^ Tf tbere is any name of modem times eonseorated in tbe gratefal remem-
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with nnasnal success, KtkÅ thpugh nearly half a century bath pasaed away
since his deatb, neither tbe nopnlarity nor nsefolness of bis wxitings bss
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16

CARTEB'S PUBLIOATIONS

NOEL— INFANT PIETY. A book for little childrwn.. By the
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NORTH AMERIOAN INDIANS— THE HISTOBY,
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ADDRESSES. 40 cents.

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